STIGUI
V-261343CAT I — High severitySV-261343r996489_rule

There must be no .shosts files on SLEM 5.

Rule version SLEM-05-255090 · STIG v1 · 2026-08-20

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 SLEM 5 with the following command:

     > sudo find / \( -path /.snapshots -o -path /sys -o -path /proc \) -prune -o -name '.shosts' -print

If any ".shosts" files are found on the system, this is a finding.

Fix

Remove any ".shosts" files found on SLEM 5.

     > sudo rm /<path_to_file>/.shosts

Identifiers

Group ID
V-261343
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-261343r996489_rule
Check ID
C-65072r995894_chk
Fix ID
F-64980r995895_fix