The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that all local interactive user home directories are owned by their respective users.

STIG ID: RHEL-07-020640  |  SRG: SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227 |  Severity: medium |  CCI: CCI-000366 |  Vulnerability Id: V-204469 | 

Vulnerability Discussion

If a local interactive user does not own their home directory, unauthorized users could access or modify the user's files, and the users may not be able to access their own files.

Check

Verify the assigned home directory of all local interactive users on the system exists.

Check the home directory assignment for all local interactive users on the system with the following command:

# ls -ld $(egrep ':[0-9]{4}' /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f6)

-rwxr-x--- 1 smithj users 18 Mar 5 17:06 /home/smithj

If any home directories referenced in "/etc/passwd" are not owned by the interactive user, this is a finding.

Fix

Change the owner of a local interactive user's home directories to that owner. To change the owner of a local interactive user's home directory, use the following command:

Note: The example will be for the user smithj, who has a home directory of "/home/smithj".

# chown smithj /home/smithj