STIGUI
V-282661CAT II — Medium severitySV-282661r1200963_rule

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

Rule version TOSS-05-000165 · STIG v1 · 2026-08-20

Discussion

The "/etc/passwd-" file is a backup file of "/etc/passwd", and as such, 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-282661
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-282661r1200963_rule
Check ID
C-87222r1200961_chk
Fix ID
F-87127r1200962_fix