Details

Setting the boot loader password will require that anyone rebooting the system must enter a password before being able to set command line boot parameters

Rationale:

Requiring a boot password upon execution of the boot loader will prevent an unauthorized user from entering boot parameters or changing the boot partition. This prevents users from weakening security (e.g. turning off SELinux at boot time).

Solution

Create an encrypted password with grub-md5-crypt:

# grub-md5-crypt

Password: Retype Password:

Copy and paste the into the global section of /boot/grub/grub.conf OR on systems using UEFI, into the global section of /boot/efi/EFI/*/grub.conf:

password –md5

Additional Information:

This recommendation is designed around the grub bootloader, if LILO or another bootloader is in use in your environment enact equivalent settings.

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/3148https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/3148

This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: Configuration Management.This control applies to the following type of system Unix.

References

• 800-53|CM-6
• CSCv6|5.1
• CSCv7|5.1

Source

• Tenable.com/audits