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Verify Group Ownership of /etc/hosts.allow

An XCCDF Rule

Description

To properly set the group owner of /etc/hosts.allow, run the command: 
$ sudo chgrp root /etc/hosts.allow

Rationale

The /etc/hosts.allow file is used to control access of clients to daemons in the server. Insecure groupownership of this file could allow users to grant clients unrestricted access or no access at all to services in the server.

ID
xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_file_groupowner_etc_hosts_allow
Severity
Medium
Updated

Remediation Templates

A Shell Script

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if rpm --quiet -q kernel; then
chgrp 0 /etc/hosts.allow

else
    >&2 echo 'Remediation is not applicable, nothing was done'
fi

An Ansible Snippet

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - configure_strategy
  - file_groupowner_etc_hosts_allow