Ensure local interactive user dot files access is configured

MediumLevel 1Manual reviewaix

Description

USER configuration files in their respective HOME directory e.g. $HOME/.profile, should only be accessible to the owner aka UID of the file. Write access to USER or account configuration files may enable malicious users to steal or modify other user's data, or to gain elevated privileges while read access may reveal secrets.

How it is checked

Audit method: Manual review

This recommendation cannot be checked automatically. A scan lists it with these instructions when you pass --include-manual.

Validate the permissions of all user configuration files: lsuser -a home ALL |cut -f2 -d= |egrep -v "^/$|/etc|/bin|/var|/usr|/usr/sys" |while read homedir; do if [[ -d ${homedir} ]]; then echo "Listing all user confguration files in '${homedir}'" ls -a ${homedir} |egrep "^\.[a-z]" |while read file; do if [[ -f "${homedir}/${file}" ]]; then ls -l "${homedir}/${file}" fi done else echo "ERROR - no home directory for '${homedir}'" fi done

How it is fixed

Fix method: Guidance or infrastructure patch

Search and remediate any user configuration files which have group or world writable access: lsuser -a home ALL |cut -f2 -d= |egrep -v "^/$|/etc|/bin|/var|/usr|/usr/sys" |while read homedir; do if [[ -d ${homedir} ]]; then echo "Removing 'go-w' from all user confguration files in '${homedir}'" ls -a ${homedir} |egrep "^\.[a-z]" |while read file; do if [[ -f "${homedir}/${file}" ]]; then echo "Running 'chmod go-w' on '${homedir}/${file}'" chmod go-w "${homedir}/${file}" fi done else echo "ERROR - no home directory for '${homedir}'" fi done NOTE: The permission change is automatically applied

Properties

Operating systems: Any
Tags: aixaccounts
Reference: CIS IBM AIX 7 Benchmark v1.2.0 - 4.1.1.18 Ensure local interactive user dot files access is configured