cyberstrikeus 6.2.10 Ensure users' dot files are not group or world writable (Scored)
Profile Applicability
- Level 1 - Server
- Level 1 - Workstation
Description
While the system administrator can establish secure permissions for users' "dot" files, the users can easily override these.
Rationale
Group or world-writable user configuration files may enable malicious users to steal or modify other users' data or to gain another user's system privileges.
Audit Procedure
Run the following script and verify no results are returned:
#!/bin/bash
cat /etc/passwd | egrep -v '^(root|halt|sync|shutdown)' | awk -F: '($7 != "/sbin/nologin" && $7 != "/bin/false") { print $1 " " $6 }' | while read user dir; do
if [ ! -d "$dir" ]; then
echo "The home directory ($dir) of user $user does not exist."
else
for file in $dir/.[A-Za-z0-9]*; do
if [ ! -h "$file" -a -f "$file" ]; then
fileperm=`ls -ld $file | cut -f1 -d" "`
if [ `echo $fileperm | cut -c6` != "-" ]; then
echo "Group Write permission set on file $file"
fi
if [ `echo $fileperm | cut -c9` != "-" ]; then
echo "Other Write permission set on file $file"
fi
fi
done
fi
done
Expected Result
No output should be returned.
Remediation
Making global modifications to users' files without alerting the user community can result in unexpected outages and unhappy users. Therefore, it is recommended that a monitoring policy be established to report user dot file permissions and determine the action to be taken in accordance with site policy.
Default Value
Not applicable.
Notes
On some distributions the /sbin/nologin should be replaced with /usr/sbin/nologin.
References
None
CIS Controls
14.4 Protect Information With Access Control Lists - All information stored on systems shall be protected with file system, network share, claims, application, or database specific access control lists.
Profile
- Level 1