The root account must not have world-writable directories in its executable search path.

From SUSE Linux Enterprise Server v11 for System z Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000366

SV-44912r1_rule The root account must not have world-writable directories in its executable search path.

Vulnerability discussion

If the root search path contains a world-writable directory, malicious software could be placed in the path by intruders and/or malicious users and inadvertently run by root with all of root's privileges.

Check content

Check for world-writable permissions on all directories in the root user's executable search path. Procedure: # ls -ld `echo $PATH | sed "s/:/ /g"` If any of the directories in the PATH variable are world-writable, this is a finding.

Fix text

For each world-writable path in root's executable search path, do one of the following: 1. Remove the world-writable permission on the directory. Procedure: # chmod o-w 2. Remove the world-writable directory from the executable search path. Procedure: Identify and edit the initialization file referencing the world-writable directory and remove it from the PATH variable.

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