SV-40683r1: The aliases file must be group-owned by sys, bin, or system. | AIX 6.1 SECURITY TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

The aliases file must be group-owned by sys, bin, or system.

Description

Discussion Text

If the alias file is not group-owned by a system group, an unauthorized user may modify the file to add aliases to run malicious code or redirect e-mail.

How this relates to the STIG checklist: STIG vs SCAP benchmark.

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000225

Additional Details

Responsibility

System Administrator

IA Controls

ECLP-1

References

DPMS Target AIX 6.1 DISA DPMS Target AIX 6.1 2176

SCC Automation Reference

The reconstructed evaluation script behind this rule's OVAL check(s) — every module a compound check combines, with this rule's own concrete values and DISA's SCC tool's real per-module mechanism curated from static teardown of SCC releases.

#!/bin/bash
# Reconstructed from oval:mil.disa.fso.aix11:def:250
# The aliases file must be group-owned by sys, bin, or system.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# Check group-ownership /etc/mail/aliases
# file_object (file_test)
test_1() {
  ( [ "$(stat -c '%g' '/etc/mail/aliases')" -eq 0 ] ) || ( [ "$(stat -c '%g' '/etc/mail/aliases')" -eq 2 ] ) || ( [ "$(stat -c '%g' '/etc/mail/aliases')" -eq 3 ] )
}

if test_1; then
  echo "PASS"
else
  echo "FAIL"
fi

Assessment Script Powered by AISandbox-executed

A standalone Shell script to assess this control automatically. Review before running it in your environment.

Syntax-checked and actually executed in an isolated sandbox (not the real system this checks) — confirmed to run without errors.

#!/bin/sh
# OVAL Definition: oval:mil.disa.fso.aix11:def:250
if [ ! -f "/etc/mail/aliases" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if [ "$(stat -c '%G' /etc/mail/aliases)" = "system" ] || [ "$(stat -c '%G' /etc/mail/aliases)" = "sys" ] || [ "$(stat -c '%G' /etc/mail/aliases)" = "bin" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; else echo "FAIL"; exit 1; fi

Remediation

Change the group owner of the /etc/mail/aliases file.

Procedure:
# chgrp system /etc/mail/aliases