View the security misconfiguration catalog
  • Misconfiguration Name
  • nosuid mount option is not enabled for /var/tmp directory
  • Description
  • Setuid, which stands for set user ID on execution, is a special type of file permission in Linux. When an executable file's setuid permission is set by the file owner, other users may execute that program with a level of access that matches the user who owns the file. Since the /var/tmp directory is a world-writable directory, that can be accessed by all users. Therefore, it's recommended to enable the nosuid mount option for /var/tmp directory, so that /var/tmp directory can't cannot contain setuid files.
  • Severity
  • important
  • Category
  • Linux - Mounting Options Security
  • Resolution
  • Follow the below steps to resolve the misconfiguration. Edit the /etc/fstab file and add nosuid to the fourth field (mounting options) for the /var/tmp partition. Run the following command to remount /var/tmp : mount -o remount,nosuid /var/tmp
  • Potential issues that may arise after applying the resolution
  • Altering the existing security setting may create the following impact in your network operations.
  • Does remediation require reboot?
  • No