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 "bingwa" user, who has a home directory of "/home/bingwa".

$ find /home/bingwa/.[^.]* -maxdepth 0 -perm -740 -exec stat -c "%a %n" {} \; | more

755 /home/bingwa/.somepermissivefile

If any local initialization files are returned, this indicates a mode more permissive than "0740", and 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 wadea user, who has a home directory of "/home/wadea".

$ sudo chmod 0740 /home/wadea/.