In Redhat EL 6, iptables INPUT policy is ACCEPT but INPUT chain has REJECT entry in the end. /etc/syconfig/iptables is as below:

*filter
:INPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
:FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
-A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p icmp -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
-A FORWARD -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
COMMIT

Do you know why the policy is ACCEPT not DROP? I think setting DROP policy is safer than ACCEPT in case to make mistake in the chain. Actually the policy is not applied to any packet:

# iptables -L -v
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes)