The macOS system must configure audit log folders to be owned by root.

STIG ID: APPL-14-001013  |  SRG: SRG-OS-000057-GPOS-00027 | Severity: medium |  CCI: CCI-000162,CCI-000163,CCI-000164,CCI-001493,CCI-001494,CCI-001495

Vulnerability Discussion

Audit log folders must be owned by root.

The audit service must be configured to create log folders with the correct ownership to prevent normal
users from reading audit logs.

Audit logs contain sensitive data about the system and users. If log folders are set to only be readable
and writable by system administrators, the risk is mitigated.

Satisfies:
SRG-OS-000057-GPOS-00027,SRG-OS-000058-GPOS-00028,SRG-OS-000059-GPOS-00029,SRG-OS-000256-GPOS-00097,SRG-OS-000257-GPOS-00098,SRG-OS-000258-GPOS-00099

Check

Verify the macOS system is configured with audit log folders owned by root with the
following command:

/bin/ls -dn $(/usr/bin/grep '^dir' /etc/security/audit_control | /usr/bin/awk -F: '{print $2}') |
/usr/bin/awk '{print $3}'

If the result is not "0", this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the macOS system with audit log folders owned by root with
the following command:

/usr/sbin/chown root /var/audit
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