STIGUI
V-258121CAT II — Medium severitySV-258121r1155682_rule

RHEL 9 must use the common access card (CAC) smart card driver.

Rule version RHEL-09-611160 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-17

Discussion

Smart card login provides two-factor authentication stronger than that provided by a username and password combination. Smart cards leverage public key infrastructure to provide and verify credentials. Configuring the smart card driver in use by the organization helps to prevent users from using unauthorized smart cards.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000104-GPOS-00051, SRG-OS-000106-GPOS-00053, SRG-OS-000107-GPOS-00054, SRG-OS-000109-GPOS-00056, SRG-OS-000108-GPOS-00055, SRG-OS-000112-GPOS-00057, SRG-OS-000113-GPOS-00058

Check

Verify RHEL loads the CAC driver with the following command:

$ sudo opensc-tool --get-conf-entry app:default:card_drivers

cac

If "cac" is not listed as a card driver, or no line is returned for "card_drivers", this is a finding.

Fix

Configure RHEL 9 to load the CAC driver.

$ sudo opensc-tool --set-conf-entry app:default:card_drivers:cac

Restart the pcscd service to apply the changes:

$ sudo systemctl restart pcscd

Identifiers

Group ID
V-258121
Group title
SRG-OS-000104-GPOS-00051
Rule ID
SV-258121r1155682_rule
Check ID
C-61862r1155680_chk
Fix ID
F-61786r1155681_fix