Title

All global initialization files must be group-owned by sys, bin, system, or security. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Global initialization files are used to configure the user's shell environment upon login. Malicious modification of these files could compromise accounts upon logon. Failure to give ownership of sensitive files or utilities to root or bin provides the designated owner and unauthorized users with the potential to access sensitive information or change the system configuration which could weaken the system's security posture.

Check Content

Check the group ownership of global initialization files. Procedure: # ls -lL /etc/.login /etc/profile /etc/bashrc /etc/environment /etc/security/environ /etc/security/.profile /etc/csh.login /etc/csh.cshrc If any global initialization file is not group-owned by sys, bin, system, or security, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Change the group ownership of the global initialization file(s) with incorrect group ownership. Procedure: # chgrp system <global initialization file>

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-38892r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-11983

Group Title: GEN001760

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.