Apple macOS 14 (Sonoma) Security Technical Implementation Guide

The Apple macOS 14 (Sonoma) Security Technical Implementation Guide (V2 R4) has 156 STIG checks. New to STIG checklists? Read What is a STIG checklist?, CKL vs CKLB, and STIG vs SCAP benchmark.

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Severity

Version

V2 · R4

CurrentPublished Wed Oct 01 2025

The macOS system must secure user's home folders.

Apple macOS 14 (Sonoma) Security Technical Implementation Guide

Assessment Title

Rule Text

The macOS system must secure user's home folders.

Description

Discussion Text

The system must be configured to prevent access to other user's home folders.

The default behavior of macOS is to allow all valid users access to the top level of every other user's home folder while restricting access only to the Apple default folders within.

New to STIG checklists? Read What is a STIG checklist? and CKL vs CKLB.

Objective

V-259514

Rule

SV-259514r991592_rule

Severity

medium

Rule Version

APPL-14-002068

Documentable

false

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Rev 5

Assessment Procedure

Check Text

Verify the macOS system is configured so that permissions are set correctly on user home directories with the following command:

/usr/bin/find /System/Volumes/Data/Users -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d ! \( -perm 700 -o -perm 711 \) | /usr/bin/grep -v "Shared" | /usr/bin/grep -v "Guest" | /usr/bin/wc -l | /usr/bin/xargs

If the result is not "0", this is a finding.

Implementation Procedure

Fix Text

Configure the macOS system to set the appropriate permissions for each user on the system with the following command:

IFS=$'\n'
for userDirs in $( /usr/bin/find /System/Volumes/Data/Users -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d ! \( -perm 700 -o -perm 711 \) | /usr/bin/grep -v "Shared" | /usr/bin/grep -v "Guest" ); do
  /bin/chmod og-rwx "$userDirs"
done
unset IFS

STIG check 94 of 156 in the Apple macOS 14 (Sonoma) STIG checklist

← Previous · V-259513The macOS system must disable unattended or automatic log on to the system.Next · V-259515 →The macOS system must require administrator privileges to modify systemwide settings.