Note: This page is quite old and is likely out of date. My opinions may have also changed dramatically since this was written. It is here as a reference until I get around to updating it.

Security

Password Protection

If left unchecked a malicious user with console access can add or remove kernel parameters or chain-boot onto another device when booting using grub. You can prevent this by requiring the user to enter a password to modify the run-time configuration of grub on boot.

You can use the ‘Bootloader Password’ option during a CentOS or Fedora install however it’s uses md5 to hash the password which is a known broken scheme. grub-crypt which comes installed by default on Fedora allows you to use sha512 to hash the password like so:

[root@localhost ~]# grub-crypt --sha-512
Password:
Retype password:
$6$Um4l/Bido.ySrD.H$uuQjipx3uCu/XwGAfqOQsdIw1m1dphRbUbKOsoT5EpCt4LGi0kGdckDE3SPj2eS3pJ9DCJy3V/TqlqJOjjMvJ1

Note: Do not use the hash displayed it above, it is not secure (I used “password”)

You would then add the following line (or replace an existing one) to /etc/grub.conf

password --sha-512 $6$Um4l/Bido.ySrD.H$uuQjipx3uCu/XwGAfqOQsdIw1m1dphRbUbKOsoT5EpCt4LGi0kGdckDE3SPj2eS3pJ9DCJy3V/TqlqJOjjMvJ1

Protect the Configuration

Since the grub configuration file has a password hash in it (regardless of the current state of security of that hash type), as additional information about the server it should be restricted to only be readable and writeable by root like so:

[root@localhost ~]# chmod 600 /etc/grub.conf