SV-37385r1: All .rhosts, .shosts, .netrc, or hosts.equiv files must be accessible by only root or the owner. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

All .rhosts, .shosts, .netrc, or hosts.equiv files must be accessible by only root or the owner.

Description

Discussion Text

If these files are accessible by users other than root or the owner, they could be used by a malicious user to set up a system compromise.

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 Red Hat 5 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat 5 2154

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.rhel11:def:150
# All .rhosts, .shosts, .netrc, or hosts.equiv files must be accessible by only root or the owner.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.
#
# MANUAL REVIEW REQUIRED -- the module(s) below could not be reconstructed
# into working code from curated SCC reference data, and are excluded from
# the automated result:
#   - file_object (file_test) -- .rhosts, .shosts, .netrc, or hosts.equiv files have mode 0600 or less: no extractor for field "gexec"

echo "MANUAL REVIEW REQUIRED -- see notes above; no part of this check could be automated"

Remediation

Ensure the permission for these files is set to 600 or more restrictive and their owner is root or the same as the owner of the home directory in which they reside.

Procedure:
# chmod 600 /etc/hosts.equiv
# chmod 600 /etc/ssh/shosts.equiv
# chown root /etc/hosts.equiv
# chown root /etc/ssh/shosts.equiv

# find / -name .rhosts
# chmod 600 /<home directory>/.rhosts
# chown <home directory owner> <home directory>/.rhosts

# find / -name .shosts
# chmod 600 <directory location>/.shosts
# chown <home directory owner> <home directory>/.shosts

# find / -name .netrc
# chmod 600 <directory location>/.netrc
# chown <home directory owner> <home directory>/.netrc