When entering ISPF 3.17 z/OS UNIX Directory List Utility panel, there is a 'Permission denied' error on the top right of the panel. Why am I getting this error message?

ISPF is trying to OPEN a temporary file on your behalf, but you do not have permission to open either the temporary file or one of the directories.

On a system where RACF is the security product, the permission denied results in message ICH408I being issued on the console. The ICH408I message details the path name and reason for the error. Check the syslog to see an error message like this:

 ICH408I USER(USER1  ) GROUP(SYS1    ) NAME(USER1             )
   /tmp/USER1.14:53:49.09.stdout.ispfudl                         
   CL(DIRACC  ) FID(00000000000000000000000100000000)             
   INSUFFICIENT AUTHORITY TO OPEN                                 
   ACCESS INTENT(-W-)  ACCESS ALLOWED(OTHER      ---)             
   EFFECTIVE UID(0000065989)  EFFECTIVE GID(0000000101)

OEM security products might require that you run a report to see the security messages.

Typically, the error occurs while allocating temporary files on /tmp. Permission denied might be the result of incorrect permission bits on the /tmp/ directory.

Go into OMVS, and issue the "ls -ld /tmp/" command to display the permission bits.

The permission bits for /tmp/ should be set to 777. Anything lower can result in "Permission denied" while trying to open a temporary file on /tmp. Use the "chmod 777 /tmp/" command in superuser mode to change the permissions to 777.