Vulnerability Discussion

Local initialization files are used to configure the user's shell environment upon logon. Malicious modification of these files could compromise accounts upon logon.

Check

Verify that all local initialization files have a mode of "0740" or less permissive with the following command:

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

$ sudo ls -al /home/smithj/.[^.]* | more

-rw-------. 1 smithj users 2984 Apr 27 19:02 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--. 1 smithj users 18 Aug 21 2019 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--. 1 smithj users 193 Aug 21 2019 .bash_profile

If any local initialization files have a mode more permissive than "0740", this is a finding.

Fix

Set the mode of the local initialization files to "0740" with the following command:

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

$ sudo chmod 0740 /home/smithj/.