Skip to content
Log In

Verify Ownership of /etc/hosts.deny

An XCCDF Rule

Description

To properly set the owner of /etc/hosts.deny, run the command: 
$ sudo chown root /etc/hosts.deny

Rationale

The /etc/hosts.deny 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_owner_etc_hosts_deny
Severity
Medium
Updated

Remediation Templates

A Shell Script

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

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_owner_etc_hosts_deny