Vulnerability Discussion

If audit information were to become compromised, then forensic analysis and discovery of the true source of potentially malicious system activity is impossible to achieve.

To ensure the veracity of audit information, the operating system must protect audit information from unauthorized modification.

Audit information includes all information (e.g., audit records, audit settings, audit reports) needed to successfully audit information system activity.

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

Check

Verify that the audit log files are owned by "root" account.

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 path of the directory containing the audit logs, check if the audit log files are owned by the "root" user by using the following command:

# sudo stat -c "%n %U" /var/log/audit/*
/var/log/audit/audit.log root

If the audit log files are owned by an user other than "root", this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the audit log files to be owned by "root" user.

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 path of the directory containing the audit logs, configure the audit log files to be owned by "root" user by using the following command:

# sudo chown root /var/log/audit/*