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The macOS system must be configured with audit log files group-owned by wheel.


Overview

Finding ID Version Rule ID IA Controls Severity
V-230776 APPL-11-001014 SV-230776r599842_rule Medium
Description
The audit service must be configured to create log files with the correct group ownership to prevent normal users from reading audit logs. Audit logs contain sensitive data about the system and users. If log files are set to be readable and writable only by root or administrative users with sudo, the risk is mitigated.
STIG Date
Apple macOS 11 (Big Sur) Security Technical Implementation Guide 2022-02-16

Details

Check Text ( C-33721r607215_chk )
To check the group ownership of the audit log files, run the following command:

/usr/bin/sudo ls -le $(/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/grep '^dir' /etc/security/audit_control | awk -F: '{print $2}') | /usr/bin/grep -v current

The results should show the group owner (fourth column) to be "wheel".

If they do not, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-33694r607216_fix)
For any log file that returns an incorrect group owner, run the following command:

/usr/bin/sudo chgrp wheel [audit log file]

[audit log file] is the full path to the log file in question.