System security patches and updates must be installed and up-to-date.

From Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-001233

SV-50281r1_rule System security patches and updates must be installed and up-to-date.

Vulnerability discussion

Installing software updates is a fundamental mitigation against the exploitation of publicly-known vulnerabilities.

Check content

If the system is joined to the Red Hat Network, a Red Hat Satellite Server, or a yum server which provides updates, invoking the following command will indicate if updates are available: # yum check-update If the system is not configured to update from one of these sources, run the following command to list when each package was last updated: $ rpm -qa -last Compare this to Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) listed at https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/active/ to determine whether the system is missing applicable security and bugfix updates. If updates are not installed, this is a finding.

Fix text

If the system is joined to the Red Hat Network, a Red Hat Satellite Server, or a yum server, run the following command to install updates: # yum update If the system is not configured to use one of these sources, updates (in the form of RPM packages) can be manually downloaded from the Red Hat Network and installed using "rpm".

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