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

STIG ID: RHEL-07-040550  |  SRG: SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227 |  Severity: high |  CCI: CCI-000366 |  Vulnerability Id: V-204607 | 

Vulnerability Discussion

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.

Check

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

Remove any found "shosts.equiv" files from the system.

# rm /[path]/[to]/[file]/shosts.equiv