The operating system must automatically audit account modification.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-58289	AOSX-09-000125	SV-72719r1_rule		Medium

Description
Once an attacker establishes initial access to a system, the attacker often attempts to create a persistent method of re-establishing access. One way to accomplish this is for the attacker to create a new account or modify an existing one. Auditing of account creation and modification is one method for mitigating this risk. To address access requirements, many operating systems can be integrated with enterprise-level authentication/access/auditing mechanisms that meet or exceed access control policy requirements.

Description

Once an attacker establishes initial access to a system, the attacker often attempts to create a persistent method of re-establishing access. One way to accomplish this is for the attacker to create a new account or modify an existing one. Auditing of account creation and modification is one method for mitigating this risk. To address access requirements, many operating systems can be integrated with enterprise-level authentication/access/auditing mechanisms that meet or exceed access control policy requirements.

STIG	Date
Apple OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) Workstation Security Technical Implementation Guide	2017-01-05

Details

Check Text ( C-59115r1_chk )
In order to view the currently configured flags for the audit daemon, run the following command: sudo grep ^flags /etc/security/audit_control The account creation events 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-63605r1_fix)
To make sure the appropriate flags are enabled for auditing, run the following command: sudo sed -i.bak '/^flags/ s/$/,ad/' /etc/security/audit_control; sudo audit -s A text editor may also be used to implement the required update to the /etc/security/audit_control file.