There must be no shosts.equiv files on RHEL 9.

STIG ID: RHEL-09-252070  |  SRG: SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227 |  Severity: high |  CCI: CCI-000366 |  Vulnerability Id: V-257955 | 

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 RHEL 9 with the following command:

$ sudo find / -name shosts.equiv

If a "shosts.equiv" file is found, this is a finding.

Fix

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

$ sudo rm /[path]/[to]/[file]/shosts.equiv
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