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 deletion. This requirement can be achieved through multiple methods, which will depend upon system architecture and design.

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

Check

Verify that the audit log directory is 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 directory is owned by the "root" user by using the following command:

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

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

Fix

Configure the audit log directory 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 directory to be owned by "root" user by using the following command:

# chown -R root /var/log/audit