Details

If the system does not require valid root authentication before it boots into single-user or maintenance mode, anyone who invokes single-user or maintenance mode is granted privileged access to all files on the system.

Solution

Edit /etc/inittab and set sulogin to run in single-user mode.
Example line in /etc/inittab:
~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin

Note: The first field in the /etc/inittab line may be any sequence of 1-4 characters.

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• http://iasecontent.disa.mil/stigs/zip/U_RedHat_5_V1R18_STIG.zip

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-3
• CAT|II
• CCE|CCE-4241-6, CCI|CCI-000213
• Group-ID|V-756
• Rule-ID|SV-37350r2_rule
• STIG-ID|GEN000020
• Vuln-ID|V-756

Source

• Tenable.com/audits