All AIX interactive users home directories must be group-owned by the home directory owner primary group.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-215277 | SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00230 | AIX7-00-002086 | SV-215277r991592_rule | 2026-02-06 | 3 |
Description
If the Group Identifier (GID) of the home directory is not the same as the GID of the user, this would allow unauthorized access to files.
ℹ️ Check
Check the group ownership for each user in the "/etc/passwd" file using command:
# cut -d: -f6 /etc/passwd | xargs ls -lLd
drwxr-xr-x 21 root system 4096 Jan 29 09:58 /
drwxr-xr-x 4 bin bin 45056 Jan 24 12:31 /bin
drwxr-xr-x 2 doejohn staff 256 Jan 25 13:18 /home/doejohn
drwxr-xr-x 2 sshd system 256 Aug 11 2017 /home/srvproxy
drwx------ 2 root system 256 Jan 30 12:54 /root
drwxrwxr-x 4 bin bin 256 Mar 23 2017 /usr/sys
drwxrwxr-x 15 root adm 4096 Jan 24 12:26 /var/adm
drwxr-xr-x 6 root system 4096 Jan 24 07:34 /var/adm/invscout
drwxr-xr-x 8 esaadmin system 256 Jan 24 09:02 /var/esa
If any user's home directory is not group-owned by the assigned user's primary group, this is a finding.
Home directories for application accounts requiring different group ownership must be documented using site-defined procedures.
✔️ Fix
Change the group owner for users home directories to the primary group of the assigned user:
# chgrp <groupname> <directoryname>
(Replace examples with appropriate group and home directory.)
Document all changes.