The macOS system must enable Authenticated Root.

STIG ID: APPL-14-005070  |  SRG: SRG-OS-000080-GPOS-00048 | Severity: medium |  CCI: CCI-000213

Vulnerability Discussion

Authenticated Root must be enabled.

When Authenticated Root is enabled the macOS is booted from a signed volume that is cryptographically protected to prevent tampering with the system volume.

Note: Authenticated Root is enabled by default on macOS systems.

WARNING: If more than one partition with macOS is detected, the csrutil command will hang awaiting input.

Check

Verify the macOS system is configured to enable authenticated root with the following command:

/usr/bin/csrutil authenticated-root | /usr/bin/grep -c 'enabled'

If the result is not "1", this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the macOS system to enable authenticated root with the following command:

/usr/bin/csrutil authenticated-root enable

Note: To reenable "Authenticated Root", boot the affected system into "Recovery" mode, launch "Terminal" from the "Utilities" menu, and run the command.