STIGUI
V-257956CAT I — High severitySV-257956r1268251_rule

There must be no .shosts files on RHEL 9.

Rule version RHEL-09-252075 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-17

Discussion

The .shosts files are used to configure host-based authentication for individual users or 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" files on RHEL 9 with the following command:

$ sudo find / -name .shosts

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

Fix

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

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

Identifiers

Group ID
V-257956
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-257956r1268251_rule
Check ID
C-61697r925853_chk
Fix ID
F-61621r925854_fix