Vulnerability Discussion

Misuse of the init command may cause availability issues for the system.

Check

Verify that RHEL 9 is configured to audit the execution of the "init" command with the following command:

$ sudo auditctl -l | grep init

-a always,exit -F path=/usr/sbin/init -F perm=x -F auid>=1000 -F auid!=unset -k privileged-init

If the command does not return a line, or the line is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the audit system to generate an audit event for any successful/unsuccessful uses of the "init" command by adding or updating the following rule in the "/etc/audit/rules.d/audit.rules" file:

-a always,exit -F path=/usr/sbin/init -F perm=x -F auid>=1000 -F auid!=unset -k privileged-init

The audit daemon must be restarted for the changes to take effect.