Vulnerability Discussion

Only authorized personnel should be aware of errors and the details of the errors. Error messages are an indicator of an organization's operational state or can identify the RHEL 8 system or platform. Additionally, Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and operational information must not be revealed through error messages to unauthorized personnel or their designated representatives.

The structure and content of error messages must be carefully considered by the organization and development team. The extent to which the information system is able to identify and handle error conditions is guided by organizational policy and operational requirements.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000057-GPOS-00027, SRG-OS-000058-GPOS-00028, SRG-OS-000059-GPOS-00029, SRG-OS-000206-GPOS-00084

Check

Verify the audit logs have a mode of "0600" or less permissive.

First, determine where the audit logs are stored with the following command:

$ sudo grep -iw log_file /etc/audit/auditd.conf

log_file = /var/log/audit/audit.log

Using the location of the audit log file, check if the audit log has a mode of "0600" or less permissive with the following command:

$ sudo stat -c "%a %n" /var/log/audit/audit.log

600 /var/log/audit/audit.log

If the audit log has a mode more permissive than "0600", this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the audit log to be protected from unauthorized read access by configuring the log group in the /etc/audit/auditd.conf file:

log_group = root