Vulnerability Discussion

If users can write to audit logs, audit trails can be modified or destroyed.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000057-GPOS-00027, SRG-OS-000058-GPOS-00028, SRG-OS-000059-GPOS-00029

Check

Verify RHEL 10 enforces the audit log directory to have a mode of "0750" or less permissive to prevent unauthorized read access.

Determine where the audit logs are stored with the following command:

$ sudo grep "^log_file" /etc/audit/auditd.conf
log_file = /var/log/audit/audit.log

Find the group that owns audit logs:

$ sudo grep "^log_group" /etc/audit/auditd.conf
log_group = root

Run the following command to check the mode of the system audit logs:

$ sudo stat -c "%a %n" [audit_log_directory]

Replace "[audit_log_directory]" to the correct audit log directory path; by default this location is "/var/log/audit".

If the log_group is "root" or is not set, the correct permissions are "0700".

If the log_group is owned by anyone other than "root", the correct permissions are "0750".

If audit logs have a more permissive mode than is required, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure RHEL 10 so that the audit log directories have a mode of "0750" or less permissive to prevent unauthorized read access with the following command:

$ sudo chmod 0700 /var/log/audit

Note: The correct permissions are "0700" if the directory is owned by "root"; otherwise, the correct permissions are "0750".

Restart the audit daemon with the following command for the changes to take effect:

$ sudo service auditd restart