STIGhubSTIGhub
STIGsRMF ControlsCompare
STIGhub— A free STIG search and compliance tool·STIGs updated 3 days ago
Powered by Pylon·Privacy·Terms·© 2026 Beacon Cloud Solutions, Inc.
← Back to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server v11 for System z Security Technical Implementation Guide

V-850

CAT II (Medium)

Any X Windows host must write .Xauthority files.

Rule ID

SV-45911r1_rule

STIG

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server v11 for System z Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R12

CCIs

CCI-000297

Discussion

.Xauthority files ensure the user is authorized to access specific X Windows host. If .Xauthority files are not used, it may be possible to obtain unauthorized access to the X Windows host.

Check Content

Check if the ‘xorg-x11’ package is installed:
# rpm –q xorg-x11
If the xorg-x11 package is not installed this finding does not apply.



Check for .Xauthority or .xauth files being utilized by looking for such files in the home directory of a user.

Procedure:
Verify Xwindows is used on the system. 
# egrep "^x:5.*X11" /etc/inittab
If no line is returned the boot process does not start Xwindows. If Xwindows is not configured to run, this rule is not applicable. 

Look for xauthority files in user home directory.
# cd ~someuser
# ls -la|egrep "(\.Xauthority|\.xauth) "

If the .Xauthority or .xauth (followed by apparently random characters) files do not exist, ask the SA if the user is using Xwindows. If the user is utilizing Xwindows and none of these files exist, this is a finding.

Fix Text

The X Windows server package should not be needed on a System z virtual OE.  It can be removed to close this finding:
# rpm –e xorg-x11

If X Windows is required for some reason, ensure that the X Windows host is configured to write .Xauthority files into user home directories.  Edit the Xaccess file.  Ensure the line that writes the .Xauthority file is uncommented.