RHEL 9 STIG Version Comparison

There are 94 differences between versions v2 r5 (July 2, 2025) (the "left" version) and v2 r7 (Jan. 5, 2026) (the "right" version).

Check RHEL-09-654097 was added to the benchmark in the "right" version.

This check's original form is available here.

Title

RHEL 9 must audit any script or executable called by cron as root or by any privileged user.

Check Content

Verify RHEL 9 is configured to audit the execution of any system call made by cron as root or by 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. It must also have the permissions 755 or more restrictive and should have no extended rights that allow any nonprivileged user to modify the script or executable.

Fix

Configure RHEL 9 to audit the execution of any system call made by cron as root or by any privileged user. Add or update the following file system rules to "/etc/audit/rules.d/audit.rules": -w /etc/cron.d/ -p wa -k cronjobs -w /var/spool/cron/ -p wa -k cronjobs To load the rules to the kernel immediately, use the following command: $ sudo augenrules --load