Title

The macOS system must be configured with audit log folders owned by root. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

The audit service must be configured to create log files with the correct ownership to prevent normal users from reading audit logs. Audit logs contain sensitive data about the system and about users. If log files are set to be readable and writable only by root or administrative users with sudo, the risk is mitigated.

Check Content

To check the ownership of the audit log folder, run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo ls -lde $(/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/grep '^dir' /etc/security/audit_control | awk -F: '{print $2}') The results should show the owner (third column) to be "root". If it does not, this is a finding.

Fix Text

For any log folder that has an incorrect owner, run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo chown root [audit log folder]

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-230775r599842_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-230775

Group Title: SRG-OS-000057-GPOS-00027

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.