STIGUI
V-257920CAT II — Medium severitySV-257920r1101926_rule

RHEL 9 library files must be owned by root.

Rule version RHEL-09-232200 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-17

Discussion

If RHEL 9 allowed any user to make changes to software libraries, then those changes might be implemented without undergoing the appropriate testing and approvals that are part of a robust change management process.

This requirement applies to RHEL 9 with software libraries that are accessible and configurable, as in the case of interpreted languages. Software libraries also include privileged programs that execute with escalated privileges.

Check

Verify the systemwide shared library files contained in the directories "/lib", "/lib64", "/usr/lib", and "/usr/lib64" are owned by root with the following command:

$ sudo find /lib /lib64 /usr/lib /usr/lib64 -type f -name '*.so*' ! -user root -exec stat -c "%n %U" {} +

If any output is returned, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the systemwide shared library files contained in the directories "/lib", "/lib64", "/usr/lib", and "/usr/lib64" to be owned by root with the following command:

$ sudo find /lib /lib64 /usr/lib /usr/lib64 -type f -name '*.so*' ! -user root -exec chown root {} +

Identifiers

Group ID
V-257920
Group title
SRG-OS-000259-GPOS-00100
Rule ID
SV-257920r1101926_rule
Check ID
C-61661r1101924_chk
Fix ID
F-61585r1101925_fix