All global initialization files executable search paths must contain only authorized paths.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-11985	GEN001840	SV-37420r3_rule		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, two consecutive colons, or a single period, 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, two consecutive colons, or a single period, 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	2017-03-01

Details

Check Text ( C-35932r3_chk )
Check the global initialization files' executable search paths. Procedure: # grep PATH /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 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 (/), or has not been documented with the ISSO, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-35932r3_chk )

Check the global initialization files' executable search paths.

Procedure:
# grep PATH /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 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 (/), or has not been documented with the ISSO, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-31187r2_fix)
Edit the global initialization file(s) with PATH variables containing relative paths and remove any relative path from the PATH variables that have not been authorized by the ISSO. Edit the global initialization file(s) and remove any empty entry that is defined.