STIG ID: RHEL-09-252070 | SRG: SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227 | Severity: high | CCI: | Vulnerability Id: V-257955
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.
Remove any found "shosts.equiv" files from the system.
$ sudo rm /[path]/[to]/[file]/shosts.equiv
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.