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Require Authentication for Single User Mode

An XCCDF Rule

Description

Single-user mode is intended as a system recovery method, providing a single user root access to the system by providing a boot option at startup.

By default, single-user mode is protected by requiring a password and is set in /usr/lib/systemd/system/rescue.service.

Rationale

This prevents attackers with physical access from trivially bypassing security on the machine and gaining root access. Such accesses are further prevented by configuring the bootloader password.

ID
xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_require_singleuser_auth
Severity
Medium
References
Updated