STIGQter: STIG Summary: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide Version: 2 Release: 9 Benchmark Date: 01 Jul 2026:

RHEL 9 must not permit direct logons to the root account using remote access via SSH.

DISA Rule

SV-257985r1069364_rule

Vulnerability Number

V-257985

Group Title

SRG-OS-000109-GPOS-00056

Rule Version

RHEL-09-255045

Severity

CAT II

CCI(s)

• CCI-004045 - Require users to be individually authenticated before granting access to the shared accounts or resources.

Weight

10

Fix Recommendation

To configure the system to prevent SSH users from logging on directly as root add or modify the following line in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" or in a file in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d".

PermitRootLogin no

Restart the SSH daemon for the settings to take effect:

$ sudo systemctl restart sshd.service

Check Contents

Verify RHEL 9 remote access using SSH prevents users from logging on directly as "root" with the following command:

$ sudo /usr/sbin/sshd -dd 2>&1 | awk '/filename/ {print $4}' | tr -d '\r' | tr '\n' ' ' | xargs sudo grep -iH '^\s*permitrootlogin'

PermitRootLogin no

If the "PermitRootLogin" keyword is set to any value other than "no", is missing, or is commented out, this is a finding.

Vulnerability Number

V-257985

Documentable

False

Rule Version

RHEL-09-255045

Severity Override Guidance

Verify RHEL 9 remote access using SSH prevents users from logging on directly as "root" with the following command:

$ sudo /usr/sbin/sshd -dd 2>&1 | awk '/filename/ {print $4}' | tr -d '\r' | tr '\n' ' ' | xargs sudo grep -iH '^\s*permitrootlogin'

PermitRootLogin no

If the "PermitRootLogin" keyword is set to any value other than "no", is missing, or is commented out, this is a finding.

Check Content Reference

M

Target Key

5551