======6.2.14 Ensure no users have .rhosts files (Scored)====== =====Profile Applicability===== Level 1 - Server Level 1 - Workstation =====Description===== While no ''.rhosts'' files are shipped by default, users can easily create them. =====Rationale===== This action is only meaningful if ''.rhosts'' support is permitted in the file ''/etc/pam.conf''. Even though the ''.rhosts'' files are ineffective if support is disabled in ''/etc/pam.conf'', they may have been brought over from other systems and could contain information useful to an attacker for those other systems. =====Audit===== Run the following script and verify no results are returned: #!/bin/bash for dir in `cat /etc/passwd | egrep -v '(root|halt|sync|shutdown)' | awk -F: '($7 != "/usr/sbin/nologin") { print $6 }'`; do for file in $dir/.rhosts; do if [ ! -h "$file" -a -f "$file" ]; then echo ".rhosts file in $dir" fi done done =====Remediation===== Making global modifications to users' files without alerting the user community can result in unexpected outages and unhappy users. Therefore, it is recommended that a monitoring policy be established to report user ''.rhosts'' files and determine the action to be taken in accordance with site policy.