Title

The application must automatically audit account removal actions. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

When application accounts are removed, user accessibility is affected. Accounts are utilized for identifying individual application users or for identifying the application processes themselves. In order to detect and respond to events affecting user accessibility and application processing, applications must audit account removal actions and, as required, notify the appropriate individuals, so they can investigate the event. Such a capability greatly reduces the risk that application accessibility will be negatively affected for extended periods of time and provides logging that can be used for forensic purposes. Application developers are encouraged to integrate their applications with enterprise-level authentication/access/audit mechanisms such as Syslog, Active Directory or LDAP.

Check Content

Examine the application documentation to identify how the application users are managed. Interview the application administrator and determine if the application is configured to utilize a centralized user management system like Active Directory for user management or if the application manages user accounts within the application. If the application is configured to use an enterprise-based application user management capability that is STIG compliant, the requirement is not applicable. Identify the location of the audit logs and review the end of the logs. Access the user account management functionality and remove a test user account. Examine the log file again and determine if the account removal event was logged. The information logged should, at a minimum, include enough detail to determine which account was disabled and when. If the account removal event information was not logged, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the application to write a log entry when a user account is removed. At a minimum, ensure account name, date and time of the event are recorded.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-222416r879528_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-222416

Group Title: SRG-APP-000029

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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