STIGUI
V-257955CAT I — High severitySV-257955r1268251_rule

There must be no shosts.equiv files on RHEL 9.

Rule version RHEL-09-252070 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-17

Discussion

The shosts.equiv files are used to configure host-based authentication for the system via SSH. Host-based authentication is not sufficient for preventing unauthorized access to the system, as it does not require interactive identification and authentication of a connection request, or for the use of two-factor authentication.

Check

Verify there are no "shosts.equiv" files on RHEL 9 with the following command:

$ sudo find / -name shosts.equiv

If a "shosts.equiv" file is found, this is a finding.

Fix

Remove any found "shosts.equiv" files from the system.

$ sudo rm /[path]/[to]/[file]/shosts.equiv

Identifiers

Group ID
V-257955
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-257955r1268251_rule
Check ID
C-61696r925850_chk
Fix ID
F-61620r925851_fix