3.4.5 Ensure permissions on /etc/hosts.deny are 644 (Scored)
Profile Applicability
Level 1 - Server Level 1 - Workstation
Description
The /etc/hosts.deny
file contains network information that is used by many system applications and therefore must be readable for these applications to operate.
Rationale
It is critical to ensure that the /etc/hosts.deny
file is protected from unauthorized write access. Although it is protected by default, the file permissions could be changed either inadvertently or through malicious actions.
Audit
Run the following command and verify Uid and Gid are both 0/root and Access is 644:
# stat /etc/hosts.deny Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Remediation
Run the following commands to set permissions on /etc/hosts.deny
:
# chown root:root /etc/hosts.deny # chmod 644 /etc/hosts.deny