STIGUI
V-282659CAT II — Medium severitySV-282659r1200957_rule

The TOSS 5 /etc/passwd file must be owned by root.

Rule version TOSS-05-000163 · STIG v1 · 2026-08-20

Discussion

The "/etc/passwd" file contains information about the users that are configured on the system. Protecting this file is critical for system security.

Check

Verify the ownership of the "/etc/passwd" file using the following command:

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

root /etc/passwd

If "/etc/passwd" file does not have an owner of "root", this is a finding.

Fix

Change the owner of the file /etc/passwd to root using the following command:

$ sudo chown root /etc/passwd

Identifiers

Group ID
V-282659
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-282659r1200957_rule
Check ID
C-87220r1200955_chk
Fix ID
F-87125r1200956_fix