V-11982

Discussion

Global initialization files are used to configure the user's shell environment upon login. Malicious modification of these files could compromise accounts upon logon. 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.

Check Content

Check the ownership of global initialization files.

Procedure:
# ls -lL /etc/bash.bashrc /etc/csh.cshrc /etc/csh.login /etc/environment /etc/ksh.kshrc /etc/profile /etc/profile.d/* /etc/zshrc
This should show information for each file. Examine to ensure the owner is always root

or:
# ls /etc/bash.bashrc /etc/csh.cshrc /etc/csh.login /etc/environment /etc/ksh.kshrc /etc/profile /etc/profile.d/* /etc/zshrc 2>/dev/null|xargs stat -L -c %U:%n|egrep -v "^root"

This will show you only the owner and filename of files not owned by root.

If any global initialization file is not owned by root, this is a finding.