Title

Permissions for event logs must conform to minimum requirements. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Event logs may be susceptible to tampering if proper permissions are not applied.

Check Content

Verify the permissions on the event logs. Standard user accounts or groups must not have access. The default permissions listed below satisfy this requirement. Navigate to the log file location. The default location is the "%SystemRoot%\System32\winevt\Logs" directory. For each log file below, right click the file and select "Properties". Select the "Security" tab. Select the "Advanced" button, then "Continue", and respond to any UAC prompts. Log Files: Application.evtx Security.evtx System.evtx Permissions: Eventlog - Full Control SYSTEM - Full Control Administrators - Full Control If the permissions for the file are not as restrictive as those listed, this is a finding. If the organization has an "Auditors" group from previous requirements, the assignment of Full Control permissions to this group would not be a finding.

Fix Text

Maintain the permissions on the event logs. Standard user accounts or groups must not have access. The default permissions listed below satisfy this requirement. Navigate to the log file location. The default location is the "%SystemRoot%\System32\winevt\Logs" directory. For each log file below, right click the file and select "Properties". Select the "Security" tab. Select the "Advanced" button, then "Continue", and respond to any UAC prompts. Log Files: Application.evtx Security.evtx System.evtx Permissions: Eventlog - Full Control SYSTEM - Full Control Administrators - Full Control If the organization has an "Auditors" group from previous requirements, this group may be assigned Full Control. If the location of the logs has been changed, when adding Eventlog to the permissions, it must be entered as "NT Service\Eventlog".

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-15087r2_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-1077

Group Title: Incorrect ACLs for event logs

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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