RHEL 8 STIG Version Comparison

There are 19 differences between versions v2 r3 (April 2, 2025) (the "left" version) and v2 r5 (Oct. 1, 2025) (the "right" version).

Check RHEL-08-030655 was added to the benchmark in the "right" version.

This check's original form is available here.

Title

RHEL 8 must audit any script or executable called by cron as root or by any privileged user.

Check Content

Verify RHEL 8 is configured to audit the execution of any system call made by cron as root or as any privileged user. $ sudo auditctl -l | grep /etc/cron.d -w /etc/cron.d -p wa -k cronjobs $ sudo auditctl -l | grep /var/spool/cron -w /var/spool/cron -p wa -k cronjobs If either of these commands do not return the expected output, or the lines are commented out, this is a finding.

Discussion

Any script or executable called by cron as root or by any privileged user must be owned by that user, must have the permissions set to 755 or more restrictive, and have no extended rights that allow a nonprivileged user to modify the script or executable.

Fix

Configure RHEL 8 to audit the execution of any system call made by cron as root or as any privileged user. Add or update the following file system rules to "/etc/audit/rules.d/audit.rules": auditctl -w /etc/cron.d/ -p wa -k cronjobs auditctl -w /var/spool/cron/ -p wa -k cronjobs To load the rules to the kernel immediately, use the following command: $ sudo augenrules --load