Check: APPL-14-001001
Apple macOS 14 (Sonoma) STIG:
APPL-14-001001
(in versions v2 r2 through v1 r1)
Title
The macOS system must be configured to audit all administrative action events. (Cat II impact)
Discussion
Administrative action events include changes made to the system (e.g., modifying authentication policies). If audit records do not include "ad" events, it is difficult to identify incidents and to correlate incidents to subsequent events. Audit records can be generated from various components within the information system (e.g., via a module or policy filter). Administrative and privileged access, including administrative use of the command line tools "kextload" and "kextunload" and changes to configuration settings, are logged by way of the "ad" flag. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000004-GPOS-00004,SRG-OS-000239-GPOS-00089,SRG-OS-000240-GPOS-00090,SRG-OS-000241-GPOS-00091,SRG-OS-000327-GPOS-00127,SRG-OS-000365-GPOS-00152,SRG-OS-000392-GPOS-00172,SRG-OS-000458-GPOS-00203,SRG-OS-000471-GPOS-00215,SRG-OS-000471-GPOS-00216,SRG-OS-000476-GPOS-00221
Check Content
Verify the macOS system is configured to audit privileged access with the following command: /usr/bin/awk -F':' '/^flags/ { print $NF }' /etc/security/audit_control | /usr/bin/tr ',' '\n' | /usr/bin/grep -Ec 'ad' If "ad" is not listed in the output, this is a finding.
Fix Text
Configure the macOS system to audit privileged access with the following command: /usr/bin/grep -qE "^flags.*[^-]ad" /etc/security/audit_control || /usr/bin/sed -i.bak '/^flags/ s/$/,ad/' /etc/security/audit_control; /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-259452r1009583_rule
Vulnerability ID: V-259452
Group Title: SRG-OS-000004-GPOS-00004
Expert Comments
CCIs
| Number | Definition |
|---|---|
| CCI-000018 |
Automatically audit account creation actions. |
| CCI-000172 |
Generate audit records for the event types defined in AU-2 c that include the audit record content defined in AU-3. |
| CCI-001403 |
Automatically audit account modification actions. |
| CCI-001404 |
Automatically audit account disabling actions. |
| CCI-001405 |
Automatically audit account removal actions. |
| CCI-001814 |
The Information system supports auditing of the enforcement actions. |
| CCI-002234 |
Log the execution of privileged functions. |
| CCI-002884 |
Log organization-defined audit events for nonlocal maintenance and diagnostic sessions. |
| CCI-003938 |
Automatically generate audit records of the enforcement actions. |
| CCI-004188 |
Monitor the use of maintenance tools that execute with increased privilege. |