Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 • Release: 7 Benchmark Date: 05 Jan 2026

CAT II V-257999 RHEL-09-255115

RHEL 9 SSH server configuration files' permissions must not be modified.

Documentable No
Rule ID SV-257999r1155686_rule
CCI References
CCI-000366

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 have correct permissions (owner, group owner, mode) to prevent unauthorized changes.

Check Procedure

Verify the permissions of the "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" file with the following command:

$ sudo rpm --verify openssh-server | awk '! ($2 == "c" && $1 ~ /^.\..\.\.\.\..\./) {print $0}'

If the command returns any output, this is a finding.

Fix Action

Run the following commands to restore the correct permissions of OpenSSH server configuration files:

$ sudo rpm --setugids openssh-server
$ sudo rpm --setperms openssh-server