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← Back to IBM AIX 7.x Security Technical Implementation Guide

V-215193

CAT II (Medium)

The AIX root account must not have world-writable directories in its executable search path.

Rule ID

SV-215193r991589_rule

STIG

IBM AIX 7.x Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V3R2

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

If the root search path contains a world-writable directory, malicious software could be placed in the path by intruders and/or malicious users and inadvertently run by root with all of root's privileges.

Check Content

Check for world-writable permissions on all directories in the root user's executable search path:

# ls -ld `echo $PATH | sed "s/:/ /g"` 
drwxr-xr-x   33 root     system         8192 Nov 29 14:45 /etc
drwxr-xr-x    3 bin      bin             256 Aug 11 2017  /sbin
drwxr-xr-x    4 bin      bin           45056 Oct 31 12:59 /usr/bin
drwxr-xr-x    1 bin      bin             16 Aug 11 2017  /usr/bin/X11
drwxr-xr-x    2 bin      bin            4096 Aug 11 2017  /usr/java7_64/bin
drwxr-xr-x    4 bin      bin            4096 Feb 17 2017  /usr/java7_64/jre/bin
drwxr-xr-x    8 bin      bin           49152 Oct 31 12:59 /usr/sbin
drwxrwxr-x    2 bin      bin            4096 Aug 11 2017  /usr/ucb

If any of the directories in the "PATH" variable are world-writable, this is a finding.

Fix Text

For each world-writable path in root's executable search path, perform one of the following. 

Remove the world-writable permission on the directory. 

Run command: 
# chmod o-w <path> 

-OR-
Remove the world-writable directory from the executable search path. Identify and edit the initialization file referencing the world-writable directory and remove it from the PATH variable.