The macOS system must be configured with audit log files set to mode 440 or less permissive.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-257176	APPL-13-001016	SV-257176r905161_rule		Medium

Description
The audit service must be configured to create log files with the correct permissions to prevent normal users from reading audit logs. Audit logs contain sensitive data about the system and about 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 13 (Ventura) Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-08-28

Details

Check Text ( C-60861r905159_chk )
Verify the macOS system is configured with audit log files set to mode 440 or less with the following command: /usr/bin/sudo /bin/ls -le $(/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/grep '^dir' /etc/security/audit_control | /usr/bin/awk -F: '{print $2}') | /usr/bin/grep -v current If the files are not mode 440 or less, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-60802r905160_fix)
Configure the macOS system with audit log files set to mode 440 with the following command: /usr/bin/sudo /bin/chmod 440 [audit log file]