Verify Group Who Owns cron.weekly

Classification:

compliance

Framework:

Control:

Description

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

$ sudo chgrp root /etc/cron.weekly

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.

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if [ ! -f /.dockerenv ] && [ ! -f /run/.containerenv ]; then

find -H /etc/cron.weekly/ -maxdepth 1 -type d -exec chgrp 0 {} \;

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: Ensure group owner on /etc/cron.weekly/
 file:
 path: /etc/cron.weekly/
 state: directory
 group: '0'
 when: ansible\_virtualization\_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
 tags:
 - NIST-800-53-AC-6(1)
 - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
 - configure\_strategy
 - file\_groupowner\_cron\_weekly
 - low\_complexity
 - low\_disruption
 - medium\_severity
 - no\_reboot\_needed