GEN004640 - The SMTP service must not have a uudecode alias active - '/usr/lib/aliases'

Information

A common configuration for older Mail Transfer Agents (MTAs) is to include an alias for the decode user. All mail sent to this user is sent to the uudecode program, which automatically converts and stores files. By sending mail to the decode or the uudecode aliases present on some systems, a remote attacker may be able to create or overwrite files on the remote host. This could possibly be used to gain remote access.

Solution

Disable mail aliases for decode and uudecode. If the /etc/aliases or /usr/lib/aliases (mail alias) file contains entries for these programs, remove them or disable them by placing '#' at the beginning of the line, and then executing the new aliases command. For more information on mail aliases, refer to the man page for aliases. Disabled aliases would be similar to these examples:

# decode: |/usr/bin/uudecode
# uudecode: |/usr/bin/uuencode -d

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_Oracle_Linux_5_V2R1_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT, SYSTEM AND INFORMATION INTEGRITY

References: 800-53|CM-6b., 800-53|SI-2d., CAT|I, CCI|CCI-000366, CCI|CCI-001230, Rule-ID|SV-218549r603259_rule, STIG-ID|GEN004640, STIG-Legacy|SV-62821, STIG-Legacy|V-4691, Vuln-ID|V-218549

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: ad1f4c6942462e991dd0aaf87ead14d1da3f2efef5d879fc2dac101434f7ad0e