Title

All global initialization files must be group-owned by wheel. (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 the group wheel 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

Open a terminal session and enter the following commands to verify the group ownership on the global initialization files. ls -l /etc/bashrc ls -l /etc/csh.cshrc ls -l /etc/csh.login ls -l /etc/csh.logout ls -l /etc/profile If any global initialization file is not group owned by wheel, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Open a terminal session and use the following command to set the group ownership of the global initialization files. chgrp wheel /etc/<filename>

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-38061r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-11983

Group Title:

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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