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Verify and Correct File Permissions with RPM

An XCCDF Rule

Description

The RPM package management system can check file access permissions of installed software packages, including many that are important to system security. Verify that the file permissions of system files and commands match vendor values. Check the file permissions with the following command:

$ sudo rpm -Va | awk '{ if (substr($0,2,1)=="M") print $NF }'
Output indicates files that do not match vendor defaults. After locating a file with incorrect permissions, run the following command to determine which package owns it:
$ rpm -qf FILENAME

Next, run the following command to reset its permissions to the correct values:
$ sudo rpm --setperms PACKAGENAME

warning alert: Warning

Profiles may require that specific files have stricter file permissions than defined by the vendor. Such files will be reported as a finding and need to be evaluated according to your policy and deployment environment.

warning alert: Warning

This rule can take a long time to perform the check and might consume a considerable amount of resources depending on the number of packages present on the system. It is not a problem in most cases, but especially systems with a large number of installed packages can be affected.

Rationale

Permissions on system binaries and configuration files that are too generous could allow an unauthorized user to gain privileges that they should not have. The permissions set by the vendor should be maintained. Any deviations from this baseline should be investigated.

ID
xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_rpm_verify_permissions
Severity
High
References
Updated



Remediation - Shell Script


# Declare array to hold set of RPM packages we need to correct permissions for
declare -A SETPERMS_RPM_DICT

# Create a list of files on the system having permissions different from what
# is expected by the RPM database

Remediation - Ansible

- name: Read list of files with incorrect permissions
  command: rpm -Va --nodeps --nosignature --nofiledigest --nosize --nomtime --nordev
    --nocaps --nolinkto --nouser --nogroup
  register: files_with_incorrect_permissions
  failed_when: files_with_incorrect_permissions.rc > 1
  changed_when: false