Title

The macOS system must monitor remote access methods and generate audit records when successful/unsuccessful attempts to access/modify privileges occur. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Frequently, an attacker that successfully gains access to a system has only gained access to an account with limited privileges, such as a guest account or a service account. The attacker must attempt to change to another user account with normal or elevated privileges in order to proceed. Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one. Audit records can be generated from various components within the information system (e.g., module or policy filter). Satisfies: SRG-OS-000032-GPOS-00013, SRG-OS-000462-GPOS-00206

Check Content

To view the currently configured flags for the audit daemon, run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/grep ^flags /etc/security/audit_control Attempts to log in as another user are logged by way of the "lo" flag. If "lo" is not listed in the result of the check, this is a finding.

Fix Text

To ensure the appropriate flags are enabled for auditing, run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo sed -i.bak '/^flags/ s/$/,lo/' /etc/security/audit_control; /usr/bin/sudo /usr/sbin/audit -s A text editor may also be used to implement the required updates to the "/etc/security/audit_control" file.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-230771r599842_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-230771

Group Title: SRG-OS-000032-GPOS-00013

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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