SV-34829r1: The root user's home directory must not be the root directory (/). | HP-UX 11.31 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Loading benchmark…

Assessment Title

Rule Text

The root user's home directory must not be the root directory (/).

Description

Discussion Text

Changing the root home directory to something other than / and assigning it a 0700 protection makes it more difficult for intruders to manipulate the system by reading the files root places in its default directory. It also gives root the same discretionary access control for root's home directory as for the other plain user home directories.

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

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000366

Additional Details

Responsibility

System Administrator

IA Controls

ECCD-1, ECCD-2

References

DPMS Target HP-UX 11.31 DISA DPMS Target HP-UX 11.31 2171

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.hpux11:def:46
# The root user's home directory must not be the root directory (/).
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# ~root must not be /
# password_object (password_test)
test_1() {
  ! (getent passwd 'root' | cut -d: -f6) | grep -qxF '/'
}

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.hpux11:def:46
if [ ! -f "/etc/passwd" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if [ "$(grep '^root:' /etc/passwd | cut -d':' -f6)" != "/" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
echo "FAIL"; exit 1

Remediation

The root home directory should be something other than / (such as /roothome).

# mkdir /rootdir
# chown root /rootdir
# chgrp root /rootdir
# chmod 700 /rootdir
# cp -r /.??* /rootdir/.

Edit the passwd file and change the root home directory to /rootdir. The cp -r /.??* command copies all files and subdirectories of file names that begin with "." into the new root directory, which preserves the previous root environment. Ensure you are in the "/" directory when executing the "cp" command.