Vulnerability Discussion

In addition to auditing new user and group accounts, these watches will alert the system administrator(s) to any modifications. Any unexpected users, groups, or modifications should be investigated for legitimacy.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000004-GPOS-00004, SRG-OS-000037-GPOS-00015, SRG-OS-000042-GPOS-00020, SRG-OS-000062-GPOS-00031, SRG-OS-000304-GPOS-00121, SRG-OS-000392-GPOS-00172, SRG-OS-000462-GPOS-00206, SRG-OS-000470-GPOS-00214, SRG-OS-000471-GPOS-00215, SRG-OS-000239-GPOS-00089, SRG-OS-000240-GPOS-00090, SRG-OS-000241-GPOS-00091, SRG-OS-000303-GPOS-00120, SRG-OS-000466-GPOS-00210, SRG-OS-000476-GPOS-00221, SRG-OS-000274-GPOS-00104, SRG-OS-000275-GPOS-00105, SRG-OS-000276-GPOS-00106, SRG-OS-000277-GPOS-00107

Check

Verify RHEL 10 generates audit records for all account creations, modifications, disabling, and termination events that affect "/etc/passwd" with the following command:

$ sudo auditctl -l | egrep '(/etc/passwd)'
-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -F path=/etc/passwd -F perm=wa -F key=identity
-a always,exit -F arch=b64 -F path=/etc/passwd -F perm=wa -F key=identity

If the command does not return a line, or the line is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure RHEL 10 to generate audit records for all account creations, modifications, disabling, and termination events that affect "/etc/passwd".

Add or update the following file system rule to "/etc/audit/rules.d/audit.rules":

-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -F path=/etc/passwd -F perm=wa -F key=identity
-a always,exit -F arch=b64 -F path=/etc/passwd -F perm=wa -F key=identity

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

$ sudo service auditd restart