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V-215435

CAT II (Medium)

All AIX interactive users must be assigned a home directory in the passwd file and the directory must exist.

Rule ID

SV-215435r991592_rule

STIG

IBM AIX 7.x Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V3R2

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

All users must be assigned a home directory in the passwd file. Failure to have a home directory may result in the user being put in the root directory. This could create a Denial of Service because the user would not be able to perform useful tasks in this location.

Check Content

Verify each interactive user is assigned a home directory:

# cut -d: -f1,6 /etc/passwd
root
srvproxy
doejohn

If an interactive user is not assigned a home directory, this is a finding.

Verify that the interactive user home directories exist on the system:

# cut -d: -f6 /etc/passwd | xargs -n1 ls -ld

drwxr-xr-x    2 doejohn  staff           256 Jan 25 13:18 /home/doejohn

drwxr-xr-x    2 sshd     system          256 Aug 11 2017  /home/srvproxy

drwx------    2 root     system          256 Jan 30 12:54 /root

If any interactive user home directory does not exist, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Remove any unauthorized accounts with no home directory. 

If the account is valid, create the home directory using the appropriate system administration utility or process.