Details

Single user mode is used for recovery when the system detects an issue during boot or by manual selection from the bootloader. Requiring authentication in single user mode prevents an unauthorized user from rebooting the system into single user to gain root privileges without credentials.

Solution

Edit /etc/inittab and set ~~:S:respawn to ‘/sbin/sulogin’: ~~:S:respawn:/sbin/sulogin

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/1864

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

References

• 800-53|AC-6(10)

Source

• Tenable.com/audits