Oracle Linux operating systems version 7.2 or newer with a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes.

STIG ID: OL07-00-010482  |  SRG: SRG-OS-000080-GPOS-00048 | Severity: high |  CCI: CCI-000213

Vulnerability Discussion

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 Oracle Linux 7 and is designed to require a password to boot into single-user mode or make modifications to the boot menu.

Check

For systems that use UEFI, this is Not Applicable.

For systems that are running a version of Oracle Linux prior to 7.2, this is Not Applicable.

Check to see if an encrypted grub superusers password is set. On systems that use BIOS, use the following command:

$ sudo grep -iw grub2_password /boot/grub2/user.cfg
GRUB2_PASSWORD=grub.pbkdf2.sha512.[password_hash]

If the grub superusers password does not begin with "grub.pbkdf2.sha512", this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the system to encrypt the boot password for the grub superusers account with the grub2-setpassword command, which creates/overwrites the /boot/grub2/user.cfg file.

Generate an encrypted grub2 password for the grub superusers account with the following command:

$ sudo grub2-setpassword
Enter password:
Confirm password:
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