Successful/unsuccessful uses of the shutdown command in RHEL 9 must generate an audit record.

STIG ID: RHEL-09-654200 |  SRG: SRG-OS-000477-GPOS-00222 |  Severity: medium |  CCI:  | Vulnerability Id: V-258214

Vulnerability Discussion

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

Check

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

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

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

$ sudo service auditd restart

Fix

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

$ sudo cat /etc/audit/rules.d/* | grep shutdown

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

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