STIGUI
V-258085CAT II — Medium severitySV-258085r1268251_rule

RHEL 9 must use the invoking user's password for privilege escalation when using "sudo".

Rule version RHEL-09-432020 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-17

Discussion

If the rootpw, targetpw, or runaspw flags are defined and not disabled, by default the operating system will prompt the invoking user for the "root" user password.

Check

Verify that the sudoers security policy is configured to use the invoking user's password for privilege escalation with the following command:

$ sudo egrep -ir '(!rootpw|!targetpw|!runaspw)' /etc/sudoers /etc/sudoers.d/ | grep -v '#'

/etc/sudoers:Defaults !targetpw /etc/sudoers:Defaults !rootpw /etc/sudoers:Defaults !runaspw

If no results are returned, this is a finding.

If results are returned from more than one file location, this is a finding.

If "Defaults !targetpw" is not defined, this is a finding.

If "Defaults !rootpw" is not defined, this is a finding.

If "Defaults !runaspw" is not defined, this is a finding.

Fix

Define the following in the Defaults section of the /etc/sudoers file or a single configuration file in the /etc/sudoers.d/ directory:

Defaults !targetpw Defaults !rootpw Defaults !runaspw

Identifiers

Group ID
V-258085
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-258085r1268251_rule
Check ID
C-61826r1045172_chk
Fix ID
F-61750r926241_fix