All local initialization files' executable search paths must contain only absolute paths.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-11986	GEN001900	SV-37432r2_rule	ECCD-1 ECCD-2	Medium

Description
The executable search path (typically the PATH environment variable) contains a list of directories for the shell to search to find executables. If this path includes the current working directory or other relative paths, executables in these directories may be executed instead of system commands. This variable is formatted as a colon-separated list of directories. If there is an empty entry, such as a leading or trailing colon, or two consecutive colons, this is interpreted as the current working directory. Paths starting with a slash (/) are absolute paths.

Description

The executable search path (typically the PATH environment variable) contains a list of directories for the shell to search to find executables. If this path includes the current working directory or other relative paths, executables in these directories may be executed instead of system commands. This variable is formatted as a colon-separated list of directories. If there is an empty entry, such as a leading or trailing colon, or two consecutive colons, this is interpreted as the current working directory. Paths starting with a slash (/) are absolute paths.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2015-03-12

Details

Check Text ( C-35985r3_chk )
Verify local initialization files have executable search path containing only absolute paths or relative paths are necessary and documented. Procedure: NOTE: This must be done in the BASH shell. # cut -d: -f6 /etc/passwd \|xargs -n1 -IDIR find DIR -name ".*" -type f -maxdepth 1 -exec grep -l PATH {} \; This variable is formatted as a colon-separated list of directories. If there is an empty entry, such as a leading or trailing colon, or two consecutive colons, this is a finding. If an entry begins with a character other than a slash (/) this is a relative path, ask the SA or IAO if the relative path is required for the operation of a specific application. If it is not, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-35985r3_chk )

Verify local initialization files have executable search path containing only absolute paths or relative paths are necessary and documented.

Procedure:

NOTE: This must be done in the BASH shell.

# cut -d: -f6 /etc/passwd |xargs -n1 -IDIR find DIR -name ".*" -type f -maxdepth 1 -exec grep -l PATH {} \;
This variable is formatted as a colon-separated list of directories. If there is an empty entry, such as a leading or trailing colon, or two consecutive colons, this is a finding. If an entry begins with a character other than a slash (/) this is a relative path, ask the SA or IAO if the relative path is required for the operation of a specific application. If it is not, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-31242r2_fix)
Edit the local initialization file and remove the relative path entry from the executable search path variable. If this is not feasible, justify and document the necessity of having the relative path for a specific application.