An IT associate is responsible for protecting and maintaining the integrity of a set of configuration files. What command could be used to prevent users from modifying these files?

setcap is used to set or get capabilities for executable files, not to control general user file modification permissions.

auditd is a daemon that provides a CAPP-compliant auditing system, used for logging system calls and events, not for setting file modification prevention directly.

The `chmod` command (change mode) is used to change file and directory permissions, allowing an administrator to restrict write access for specific users or groups to protect file integrity.

chown (change owner) is used to change the owner or group of a file, which indirectly affects permissions but is not the primary command for preventing modification by existing users.