Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 • Release: 7 Benchmark Date: 05 Jan 2026
CAT II V-257926 RHEL-09-232230
RHEL 9 cron configuration files directory must be owned by root.
Discussion
Service configuration files enable or disable features of their respective services that if configured incorrectly can lead to insecure and vulnerable configurations; therefore, service configuration files must be owned by the correct group to prevent unauthorized changes.
Check Procedure
Verify the ownership of all cron configuration files with the command: $ stat -c "%U %n" /etc/cron* root /etc/cron.d root /etc/cron.daily root /etc/cron.deny root /etc/cron.hourly root /etc/cron.monthly root /etc/crontab root /etc/cron.weekly If any crontab is not owned by root, this is a finding.
Fix Action
Configure any cron configuration not owned by root with the following command: $ sudo chown root [cron config file]