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← Back to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide

V-204471

CAT II (Medium)

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that all files and directories contained in local interactive user home directories have a valid owner.

Rule ID

SV-204471r991589_rule

STIG

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V3R15

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

Unowned files and directories may be unintentionally inherited if a user is assigned the same User Identifier "UID" as the UID of the un-owned files.

Check Content

Verify all files and directories in a local interactive user's home directory have a valid owner.

Check the owner of all files and directories in a local interactive user's home directory with the following command:

Note: The example will be for the user "smithj", who has a home directory of "/home/smithj".

$ sudo ls -lLR /home/smithj
-rw-r--r-- 1 smithj smithj  18 Mar  5 17:06 file1
-rw-r--r-- 1 smithj smithj 193 Mar  5 17:06 file2
-rw-r--r-- 1 smithj smithj 231 Mar  5 17:06 file3

If any files or directories are found without an owner, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Either remove all files and directories from the system that do not have a valid user, or assign a valid user to all unowned files and directories on RHEL 7 with the "chown" command:

Note: The example will be for the user smithj, who has a home directory of "/home/smithj".

$ sudo chown smithj /home/smithj/<file or directory>