IBM AIX 7.x Security Technical Implementation Guide

The IBM AIX 7.x Security Technical Implementation Guide (V3 R4) has 282 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

V3 · R4

CurrentPublished Wed Sep 30 2026

There must be no .rhosts, .shosts, hosts.equiv, or shosts.equiv files on the AIX system.

IBM AIX 7.x Security Technical Implementation Guide

Assessment Title

Rule Text

There must be no .rhosts, .shosts, hosts.equiv, or shosts.equiv files on the AIX system.

Description

Discussion Text

Trust files are convenient, but when used in conjunction with the remote login services, they can allow unauthenticated access to a system.

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

Objective

V-215432

Rule

SV-215432r991591_rule

Severity

medium

Rule Version

AIX7-00-003138

Documentable

false

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Rev 5

Assessment Procedure

Check Text

Check for the existence of the files using: 
# find / -name .rhosts 
# find / -name .shosts 
# find / -name hosts.equiv 
# find / -name shosts.equiv 

If ".rhosts", ".shosts", "hosts.equiv", or "shosts.equiv" are found, this is a finding.

Implementation Procedure

Fix Text

Remove the ".rhosts", ".shosts", "hosts.equiv", and/or "shosts.equiv" files.

STIG check 258 of 282 in the IBM AIX 7.x STIG checklist

← Previous · V-215431AIX must define default permissions for all authenticated users in such a way that the user can only read and modify their own files.Next · V-215433 →The .rhosts file must not be supported in AIX PAM.