Details

Single user mode is used for recovery when the system detects an issue during boot or by manual selection from the bootloader.

Rationale:

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/sysconfig/init and set SINGLE to ‘/sbin/sulogin’:

SINGLE=/sbin/sulogin

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://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