Title

The system must not have unnecessary accounts. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Accounts providing no operational purpose provide additional opportunities for system compromise. Unnecessary accounts include user accounts for individuals not requiring access to the system and application accounts for applications not installed on the system.

Check Content

Check the system for unnecessary user accounts. Procedure: # cat /etc/passwd Some examples of unnecessary accounts include games, news, gopher, ftp, and lp. If an unnecessary account is found and its use is not justified and documented with the ISSO, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Remove all unnecessary accounts, such as games, from the /etc/passwd file before connecting a system to the network. Other accounts, such as news and gopher, associated with a service not in use should also be removed.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID:

Vulnerability ID: V-4269

Group Title:

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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