7.1.3 Ensure access to /etc/group is configured

Information

The /etc/group file contains a list of all the valid groups defined in the system.

The /etc/group file needs to be protected from unauthorized changes by non-privileged users, but needs to be readable as this information is used with many non-privileged programs.

Solution

Run the following commands to remove excess permissions, set owner, and set group on /etc/group :

# chmod u-x,go-wx /etc/group
# chown root:root /etc/group

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/27890

Item Details

Category: ACCESS CONTROL, MEDIA PROTECTION

References: 800-53|AC-3, 800-53|MP-2, CSCv7|14.6

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 39ddeb26750df28b7cfe2c94b17a9aeb7fbf5f539f5dedd3b3b567235ff7eff7