Why Are Certain Binaries SUID (4000) by Default in RHEL 7, 8, and 9?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

Clarification is needed on whether the following files having the SUID permission (mode 4000) by default is expected behavior in RHEL systems:

/usr/bin/newgrp  
/usr/bin/su  
/usr/bin/umount  
/usr/bin/chage  
/usr/bin/gpasswd  
/usr/bin/mount  
/usr/bin/crontab  
/usr/bin/pkexec  
/usr/bin/sudo  
/usr/bin/passwd  
/usr/bin/chfn  
/usr/bin/at  
/usr/bin/fusermount3  
/usr/bin/chsh  
/usr/sbin/grub2-set-bootflag  
/usr/sbin/pam_timestamp_check  
/usr/sbin/unix_chkpwd  
/usr/sbin/userhelper  
/usr/lib/polkit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1  
/usr/libexec/dbus-1/dbus-daemon-launch-helper  
/usr/libexec/cockpit-session  
/usr/libexec/sssd/krb5_child  
/usr/libexec/sssd/ldap_child  
/usr/libexec/sssd/proxy_child  
/usr/libexec/sssd/selinux_child  

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

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