All skeleton files and directories (typically in /etc/skel) must be owned by root or bin.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-11984	GEN001820	SV-37300r1_rule	ECLP-1	Medium

Description
If the skeleton files are not protected, unauthorized personnel could change user startup parameters and possibly jeopardize user files. 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	2017-03-01

Details

Check Text ( C-35995r1_chk )
Check skeleton files ownership. # ls -alL /etc/skel If a skeleton file is not owned by root or bin, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-31248r1_fix)
Change the ownership of skeleton files with incorrect mode: # chown root or # ls -L /etc/skel|xargs stat -L -c %U:%n|egrep -v "^(root|bin):"|cut -d: -f2|chown root will change all files not owned by root or bin to root.