The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not contain shosts.equiv files.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-204607	RHEL-07-040550	SV-204607r505924_rule		High

Description
The shosts.equiv files are used to configure host-based authentication for 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.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2020-09-03

Details

Check Text ( C-4731r89013_chk )
Verify there are no "shosts.equiv" files on the system. Check the system for the existence of these files with the following command: # find / -name shosts.equiv If any "shosts.equiv" files are found on the system, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-4731r89014_fix)
Remove any found "shosts.equiv" files from the system. # rm /[path]/[to]/[file]/shosts.equiv