The macOS system must be configured with audit log folders set to mode 700 or less permissive.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-230779	APPL-11-001017	SV-230779r599842_rule		Medium

Description
The audit service must be configured to create log folders with the correct permissions to prevent normal users from reading audit logs. Audit logs contain sensitive data about the system and users. If log folders are set to be readable and writable only by root or administrative users with sudo, the risk is mitigated. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000057-GPOS-00027, SRG-OS-000058-GPOS-00028, SRG-OS-000059-GPOS-00029

Description

The audit service must be configured to create log folders with the correct permissions to prevent normal users from reading audit logs. Audit logs contain sensitive data about the system and users. If log folders are set to be readable and writable only by root or administrative users with sudo, the risk is mitigated. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000057-GPOS-00027, SRG-OS-000058-GPOS-00028, SRG-OS-000059-GPOS-00029

STIG	Date
Apple macOS 11 (Big Sur) Security Technical Implementation Guide	2021-11-19

Details

Check Text ( C-33724r607224_chk )
To check the permissions of the audit log folder, run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo ls -lde $(/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/grep '^dir' /etc/security/audit_control \| awk -F: '{print $2}') The results should show the permissions (first column) to be "700" or less permissive. If they do not, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-33697r607225_fix)
For any log folder that returns an incorrect permission value, run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo chmod 700 [audit log folder]