Title

The macOS system must provide an immediate real-time alert to the System Administrator (SA) and Information System Security Officer (ISSO), at a minimum, of all audit failure events requiring real-time alerts. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

The audit service should be configured to immediately print messages to the console or email administrator users when an auditing failure occurs. It is critical for the appropriate personnel to be aware if a system is at risk of failing to process audit logs as required. Without a real-time alert, security personnel may be unaware of an impending failure of the audit capability and system operation may be adversely affected.

Check Content

By default, "auditd" only logs errors to "syslog". To see if audit has been configured to print error messages to the console, run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/grep logger /etc/security/audit_warn If the argument "-s" is missing, or if "audit_warn" has not been otherwise modified to print errors to the console or send email alerts to the SA and ISSO, this is a finding.

Fix Text

To make "auditd" log errors to standard error as well as "syslogd", run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/sed -i.bak 's/logger -p/logger -s -p/' /etc/security/audit_warn; /usr/bin/sudo /usr/sbin/audit -s

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-230783r855685_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-230783

Group Title: SRG-OS-000344-GPOS-00135

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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