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XCCDF
Guide to the Secure Configuration of Ubuntu 20.04
System Settings
File Permissions and Masks
Verify Permissions on Important Files and Directories
Ensure No World-Writable Files Exist
Ensure No World-Writable Files Exist
An XCCDF Rule
Details
Profiles
Prose
Ensure No World-Writable Files Exist
Medium Severity
It is generally a good idea to remove global (other) write access to a file when it is discovered. However, check with documentation for specific applications before making changes. Also, monitor for recurring world-writable files, as these may be symptoms of a misconfigured application or user account. Finally, this applies to real files and not virtual files that are a part of pseudo file systems such as
sysfs
or
procfs
.