Details

The operating system must remove all software components after updated versions have been installed.

Rationale:

Previous versions of software components that are not removed from the information system after updates have been installed may be exploited by adversaries. Some information technology products may remove older versions of software automatically from the information system.

Solution

Configure the operating system to remove all software components after updated versions have been installed.
Set the clean_requirements_on_remove option to 1 in the /etc/yum.conf file:
Example: vim /etc/yum.conf
Add, uncomment or update the following line:

clean_requirements_on_remove=1

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/3636

This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: System and Information Integrity.This control applies to the following type of system Unix.

References

• 800-53|SI-2(6)
• CCI|CCI-002617
• CSCv7|3.4
• CSCv7|3.5
• Rule-ID|SV-204452r603261_rule
• STIG-ID|RHEL-07-020200

Source

• Tenable.com/audits