System Audit Logs Must Be Owned By Root (al2023)

Description

All audit logs must be owned by root user and group. By default, the path for audit log is

/var/log/audit/

.

To properly set the owner of /var/log/audit, run the command:

$ sudo chown root /var/log/audit

To properly set the owner of /var/log/audit/*, run the command:

$ sudo chown root /var/log/audit/*

Rationale

Unauthorized disclosure of audit records can reveal system and configuration data to attackers, thus compromising its confidentiality.

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 [ ! -f /.dockerenv ] && [ ! -f /run/.containerenv ] && rpm --quiet -q audit; then

if LC_ALL=C grep -m 1 -q ^log_group /etc/audit/auditd.conf; then
  GROUP=$(awk -F "=" '/log_group/ {print $2}' /etc/audit/auditd.conf | tr -d ' ')
  if ! [ "${GROUP}" == 'root' ] ; then
    chown root:${GROUP} /var/log/audit
    chown root:${GROUP} /var/log/audit/audit.log*
  else
    chown root:root /var/log/audit
    chown root:root /var/log/audit/audit.log*
  fi
else
  chown root:root /var/log/audit
  chown root:root /var/log/audit/audit.log*
fi

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