All global initialization files must be owned by root.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-11982	GEN001740	SV-37283r1_rule	ECLP-1	Medium

Description
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.

Description

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.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2013-07-03

Details

Check Text ( C-35974r1_chk )
Check the ownership of global initialization files. Procedure: # ls -lL etc/bashrc /etc/csh.cshrc /etc/csh.login /etc/csh.logout /etc/environment /etc/ksh.kshrc /etc/profile /etc/suid_profile /etc/profile.d/* This should show information for each file. Examine to ensure the owner is always root or: # ls etc/bashrc /etc/csh.cshrc /etc/csh.login /etc/csh.logout /etc/environment /etc/ksh.kshrc /etc/profile /etc/suid_profile /etc/profile.d/* 2>null\|xargs stat -L -c %U:%n\|egrep -v "^root" This will show you only the owner and filename of files not owned by root. If any global initialization file is not owned by root, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-35974r1_chk )

Check the ownership of global initialization files.

Procedure:
# ls -lL etc/bashrc /etc/csh.cshrc /etc/csh.login /etc/csh.logout /etc/environment /etc/ksh.kshrc /etc/profile /etc/suid_profile /etc/profile.d/*
This should show information for each file. Examine to ensure the owner is always root

or:
# ls etc/bashrc /etc/csh.cshrc /etc/csh.login /etc/csh.logout /etc/environment /etc/ksh.kshrc /etc/profile /etc/suid_profile /etc/profile.d/* 2>null|xargs stat -L -c %U:%n|egrep -v "^root"

This will show you only the owner and filename of files not owned by root.

If any global initialization file is not owned by root, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-31229r1_fix)
Change the ownership of global initialization files with incorrect ownership. Procedure: # chown root or: # ls etc/bashrc /etc/csh.cshrc /etc/csh.login /etc/csh.logout /etc/environment /etc/ksh.kshrc /etc/profile /etc/suid_profile /etc/profile.d/* 2>null\|xargs stat -L -c %U:%n\|egrep -v "^root"\|cut -d: -f2\|xargs chown root will set the owner of all files not currently owned by root to root.