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RHEL 8 operating systems booted with United Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) must require a unique superusers name upon booting into single-user mode and maintenance.

Overview

Finding IDVersionRule IDIA ControlsSeverity
V-244521RHEL-08-010141SV-244521r1017327_ruleCCI-000213medium
Description
If the system does not require valid authentication before it boots into single-user or maintenance mode, anyone who invokes single-user or maintenance mode is granted privileged access to all files on the system. GRUB 2 is the default boot loader for RHEL 8 and is designed to require a password to boot into single-user mode or make modifications to the boot menu. The GRUB 2 superuser account is an account of last resort. Establishing a unique username for this account hardens the boot loader against brute force attacks. Due to the nature of the superuser account database being distinct from the OS account database, this allows the use of a username that is not among those within the OS account database. Examples of non-unique superusers names are root, superuser, unlock, etc.
STIGDate
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Security Technical Implementation Guide2025-05-14

Related Frameworks

1 mapping across 5 frameworks
SCF0 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 3 hops (20) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

CFG-02Secure Baseline Configurations
1.00
CRY-01Use of Cryptographic Controls
1.00
DCH-01Data Protection
1.00
HRS-02Position Categorization
1.00
HRS-11Separation of Duties (SoD)
1.00
IAC-01Identity & Access Management (IAM)
1.00
IAC-01.2Authenticate, Authorize and Audit (AAA)
1.00
IAC-02Identification & Authentication for Organizational Users
1.00
IAC-03Identification & Authentication for Non-Organizational Users
1.00
IAC-04Identification & Authentication for Devices
1.00

+10 more (top 10 by confidence shown)

NIST 800-530 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 2 hops (93) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

AC-10Concurrent Session Control
1.00
AC-16Security and Privacy Attributes
1.00
AC-17(1)Monitoring and Control
1.00
AC-17(10)Authenticate Remote Commands
1.00
AC-17(2)Protection of Confidentiality and Integrity Using Encryption
1.00
AC-18(1)Authentication and Encryption
1.00
AC-2(1)Automated System Account Management
1.00
AC-2(10)Shared and Group Account Credential Change
1.00
AC-2(11)Usage Conditions
1.00
AC-2(2)Automated Temporary and Emergency Account Management
1.00

+83 more (top 10 by confidence shown)

NIST 800-1710 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 3 hops (2) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

3.1.1
1.00
3.1.2
1.00
CCI1 mapping
CCI-000213
1.00
NIST CSF 2.00 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 3 hops (3) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

PR.AA-05
1.00
PR.DS-10
1.00
PR.IR-01
1.00

Who does this work

17 NICE work roles and 9 EC-Council certifications.

This is an inference across published mappings, not a single claim by anyone. This check maps to a control, which maps to a Cybersecurity Framework outcome, which NIST assigns to the work roles below. EC-Council separately maps its certifications to those same roles.

A certification prepares someone for a role. It is not evidence that a holder is qualified, and neither NIST nor EC-Council has stated that any certification here addresses this check.

Work-role assignments published by NIST (NICE Framework Components 2.2.0 and the CSF 2.0 OLIR crosswalk). Certification mappings published by EC-Council.

Details

Check Text (C-244521r1017327_chk)

For systems that use BIOS, this is Not Applicable. Verify that a unique name is set as the "superusers" account: $ sudo grep -iw "superusers" /boot/efi/EFI/redhat/grub.cfg set superusers="[someuniquestringhere]" export superusers If "superusers" is identical to any OS account name or is missing a name, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-47753r743811_fix)

Configure the system to have a unique name for the grub superusers account. Edit the /etc/grub.d/01_users file and add or modify the following lines: set superusers="[someuniquestringhere]" export superusers password_pbkdf2 [someuniquestringhere] ${GRUB2_PASSWORD} Generate a new grub.cfg file with the following command: $ sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/redhat/grub.cfg