There must be no shosts.equiv files on RHEL 9.

Documentable No

Rule ID SV-257955r991589_rule

CCI References

CCI-000366

Discussion

The shosts.equiv files are used to configure host-based authentication for the system via SSH. Host-based authentication is not sufficient for preventing unauthorized access to the system, as it does not require interactive identification and authentication of a connection request, or for the use of two-factor authentication.

Check Procedure

Verify there are no "shosts.equiv" files on RHEL 9 with the following command:

$ sudo find / -name shosts.equiv

If a "shosts.equiv" file is found, this is a finding.

Fix Action

Remove any found "shosts.equiv" files from the system.

$ sudo rm /[path]/[to]/[file]/shosts.equiv