Title

The DBMS must provide an immediate real-time alert to appropriate support staff of all audit log failures. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

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. The appropriate support staff include, at a minimum, the ISSO and the DBA/SA. A failure of database auditing will result in either the database continuing to function without auditing or in a complete halt to database operations. When audit processing fails, appropriate personnel must be alerted immediately to avoid further downtime or unaudited transactions. Alerts provide organizations with urgent messages. Real-time alerts provide these messages immediately (i.e., the time from event detection to alert occurs in seconds or less).

Check Content

Review DBMS settings, OS, or third-party logging software settings to determine whether a real-time alert will be sent to the appropriate personnel when auditing fails for any reason. If real-time alerts are not sent upon auditing failure, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the system to provide immediate real-time alerts to appropriate support staff when an audit log failure occurs.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-206593r879733_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-206593

Group Title: SRG-APP-000360

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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