The AIX /etc/hosts file must have a mode of 0640 or less permissive.

Unauthorized permissions of the /etc/hosts file can lead to the ability for a malicious actor to redirect traffic to servers of their choice. It is also possible to use the /etc/hosts file to block detection by security software by blocking the traffic to all the download or update servers of well-known security vendors.

Check the mode of /etc/hosts using command: # ls -al /etc/hosts

The above command should yield the following output: -rw-r----- 1 root system 993 Mar 11 07:04 /etc/hosts

If the file has a mode more permissive than "0640", this is a finding.

Change the mode of the file to 0640 using command: # chmod 0640 /etc/hosts