Verify Group Who Owns cron.yearly

Description

To properly set the group owner of /etc/cron.yearly, run the command:

$ sudo chgrp root /etc/cron.yearly

Rationale

Service configuration files enable or disable features of their respective services that if configured incorrectly can lead to insecure and vulnerable configurations. Therefore, service configuration files should be owned by the correct group to prevent unauthorized changes.

Remediation

Shell script

The following script can be run on the host to remediate the issue.

#!/bin/bash

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if rpm --quiet -q kernel-core; then

newgroup=""
if getent group "0" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  newgroup="0"
fi

if [[ -z "${newgroup}" ]]; then
  >&2 echo "0 is not a defined group on the system"
else
find -P /etc/cron.yearly/ -maxdepth 0 -type d  ! -group 0 -exec chgrp --no-dereference "$newgroup" {} \;

fi

else
    >&2 echo 'Remediation is not applicable, nothing was done'
fi

Ansible playbook

The following playbook can be run with Ansible to remediate the issue.

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - CCE-88898-2
  - NIST-800-53-AC-6(1)
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
  - configure_strategy
  - file_groupowner_cron_yearly
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed

- name: Set the file_groupowner_cron_yearly_newgroup variable if represented by gid
  ansible.builtin.set_fact:
    file_groupowner_cron_yearly_newgroup: '0'
  when: '"kernel-core" in ansible_facts.packages'
  tags:
  - CCE-88898-2
  - NIST-800-53-AC-6(1)
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
  - configure_strategy
  - file_groupowner_cron_yearly
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed

- name: Ensure group owner on /etc/cron.yearly/
  ansible.builtin.file:
    path: /etc/cron.yearly/
    follow: false
    state: directory
    group: '{{ file_groupowner_cron_yearly_newgroup }}'
  when: '"kernel-core" in ansible_facts.packages'
  tags:
  - CCE-88898-2
  - NIST-800-53-AC-6(1)
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
  - configure_strategy
  - file_groupowner_cron_yearly
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed