STIGUI
V-257904CAT II — Medium severitySV-257904r1268251_rule

RHEL 9 /etc/gshadow- file must be owned by root.

Rule version RHEL-09-232120 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-17

Discussion

The "/etc/gshadow-" file is a backup of "/etc/gshadow", and as such, contains group password hashes. Protection of this file is critical for system security.

Check

Verify the ownership of the "/etc/gshadow-" file with the following command:

$ sudo stat -c "%U %n" /etc/gshadow- 

root /etc/gshadow-

If "/etc/gshadow-" file does not have an owner of "root", this is a finding.

Fix

Change the owner of the file /etc/gshadow- to root by running the following command:

$ sudo chown root /etc/gshadow-

Identifiers

Group ID
V-257904
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-257904r1268251_rule
Check ID
C-61645r925697_chk
Fix ID
F-61569r925698_fix