RHEL 10 must not default to the graphical display manager unless approved.

STIG ID: RHEL-10-700940  |  SRG: SRG-OS-000095-GPOS-00049 |  Severity: medium (CAT II)  |  CCI: CCI-000381 |  Vulnerability Id: V-281297

Vulnerability Discussion

Unnecessary service packages must not be installed to decrease the attack surface of the system. Graphical display managers have a long history of security vulnerabilities and must not be used unless approved and documented.

Check

Verify RHEL 10 is configured to boot to the command line with the following command:

$ systemctl get-default
multi-user.target

If the system default target is not set to "multi-user.target", and the information system security officer lacks a documented requirement for a graphical user interface, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure RHEL 10 to boot to the command line by setting the default target to "multi-user" with the following command:

$ sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target
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