All AIX public directories must be owned by root or an application account.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-215190	AIX7-00-001031	SV-215190r991589_rule		Medium

Description

If a public directory has the sticky bit set and is not owned by a privileged UID, unauthorized users may be able to modify files created by others. The only authorized public directories are those temporary directories supplied with the system or those designed to be temporary file repositories. The setting is normally reserved for directories used by the system and by users for temporary file storage, (e.g., /tmp), and for directories requiring global read/write access.

STIG	Date
IBM AIX 7.x Security Technical Implementation Guide	2024-08-16

Details

Check Text (C-16388r294021_chk)

Check the ownership of all public directories using command:
# find / -type d -perm -1002 -exec ls -ld {} \;

If any public directory is not owned by "root" or an application user, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-16386r294022_fix)

Use the following command to change the owner to "root" for public directories:
# chown root [public_dir]