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V-777

CAT II (Medium)

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

Rule ID

SV-44912r1_rule

STIG

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

Version

V1R12

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.

Procedure:
# ls -ld `echo $PATH | sed "s/:/ /g"`

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, do one of the following:

1. Remove the world-writable permission on the directory.
Procedure:
# chmod o-w <path>

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