Title

The macOS system must be configured with audit log folders set to mode 700 or less permissive. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

The audit service must be configured to create log folders with the correct permissions to prevent normal users from reading audit logs. Audit logs contain sensitive data about the system and users. If log folders are set to be readable and writable only by root or administrative users with sudo, the risk is mitigated. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000057-GPOS-00027, SRG-OS-000058-GPOS-00028, SRG-OS-000059-GPOS-00029

Check Content

To check the permissions 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 permissions (first column) to be "700" or less permissive. If they do not, this is a finding.

Fix Text

For any log folder that returns an incorrect permission value, run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo chmod 700 [audit log folder]

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-252471r816227_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-252471

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.