STIGUI
V-282649CAT II — Medium severitySV-282649r1200927_rule

The TOSS 5 /etc/passwd- file must have mode 0644 or less permissive to prevent unauthorized access.

Rule version TOSS-05-000153 · STIG v1 · 2026-08-20

Discussion

The "/etc/passwd-" file is a backup file of "/etc/passwd" and contains information about the users configured on the system. Protecting this file is critical for system security.

Check

Verify the "/etc/passwd-" file has mode "0644" or less permissive using the following command:

$ sudo stat -c "%a %n" /etc/passwd-

644 /etc/passwd-

If a value of "0644" or less permissive is not returned, this is a finding.

Fix

Change the mode of the file "/etc/passwd-" to "0644" using the following command:

$ sudo chmod 0644 /etc/passwd-

Identifiers

Group ID
V-282649
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-282649r1200927_rule
Check ID
C-87210r1200925_chk
Fix ID
F-87115r1200926_fix