The macOS system must generate audit records for all account creations, modifications, disabling, and termination events; privileged activities or other system-level access; all kernel module load, unload, and restart actions; all program initiations; and organizationally defined events for all non-local maintenance and diagnostic sessions.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-81505	AOSX-13-000120	SV-96219r1_rule		Medium

Description
Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one. Audit records can be generated from various components within the information system (e.g., module or policy filter). Satisfies: SRG-OS-000004-GPOS-00004, SRG-OS-000239-GPOS-00089, SRG-OS-000240-GPOS-00090, SRG-OS-000241-GPOS-00091, SRG-OS-000327-GPOS-00127, SRG-OS-000392-GPOS-00172, SRG-OS-000471-GPOS-00215, SRG-OS-000471-GPOS-00216, SRG-OS-000476-GPOS-00221, SRG-OS-000477-GPOS-00222

Description

Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one. Audit records can be generated from various components within the information system (e.g., module or policy filter). Satisfies: SRG-OS-000004-GPOS-00004, SRG-OS-000239-GPOS-00089, SRG-OS-000240-GPOS-00090, SRG-OS-000241-GPOS-00091, SRG-OS-000327-GPOS-00127, SRG-OS-000392-GPOS-00172, SRG-OS-000471-GPOS-00215, SRG-OS-000471-GPOS-00216, SRG-OS-000476-GPOS-00221, SRG-OS-000477-GPOS-00222

STIG	Date
Apple OS X 10.13 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2020-05-29

Details

Check Text ( C-81253r1_chk )
To view the currently configured flags for the audit daemon, run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/grep ^flags /etc/security/audit_control Administrative and Privileged access, including administrative use of the command line tools "kextload" and "kextunload" and changes to configuration settings are logged by way of the "ad" flag. If "ad" is not listed in the result of the check, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-81253r1_chk )

To view the currently configured flags for the audit daemon, run the following command:

/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/grep ^flags /etc/security/audit_control

Administrative and Privileged access, including administrative use of the command line tools "kextload" and "kextunload" and changes to configuration settings are logged by way of the "ad" flag.

If "ad" is not listed in the result of the check, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-88329r1_fix)
To ensure the appropriate flags are enabled for auditing, run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/sed -i.bak '/^flags/ s/$/,ad/' /etc/security/audit_control; /usr/bin/sudo /usr/sbin/audit -s A text editor may also be used to implement the required updates to the "/etc/security/audit_control" file.