Title

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

Discussion

The audit service must be configured to create log files with the correct group 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 group 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 group (fourth column) to be "wheel". If they do not, this is a finding.

Fix Text

For any log folder that has an incorrect group, run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo chgrp wheel [audit log folder]

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-230777r599842_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-230777

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

Expert Comments

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