The owner, group-owner, mode, ACL, and location of files with the setuid bit set must be documented using site-defined procedures.

From HP-UX 11.31 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with IA controls: ECPA-1

Associated with: CCI-000368

SV-38471r1_rule The owner, group-owner, mode, ACL, and location of files with the setuid bit set must be documented using site-defined procedures.

Vulnerability discussion

All files with the setuid bit set will allow anyone running these files to be temporarily assigned the UID of the file. While many system files depend on these attributes for proper operation, security problems can result if setuid is assigned to programs that allow reading and writing of files, or shell escapes. Only default vendor-supplied executables should have the setuid bit set.

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Files with the setuid bit set will allow anyone running these files to be temporarily assigned the user or group ID of the file. If an executable with setuid allows shell escapes, the user can operate on the system with the effective permission rights of the user or group owner. List all setuid files on the system. Procedure: # find / -perm -4000 -exec ls -l {} \; | more NOTE: Executing these commands may result in large listings of files; the output may be redirected to a file for easier analysis. Ask the SA or IAO if files with the suid bit set have been documented. If any undocumented file has its suid bit set, this is a finding.

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Document the files with the suid bit set or unset the suid bit on the executable.

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