Operating systems sessions must audit non-local maintenance and diagnostic sessions organization-defined audit events.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-58507	AOSX-09-002115	SV-72937r1_rule		Medium

Description
If events associated with non-local administrative access or diagnostic sessions are not logged, a major tool for assessing and investigating attacks would not be available. This requirement addresses auditing-related issues associated with maintenance tools used specifically for diagnostic and repair actions on organizational information systems. Non-local maintenance and diagnostic activities are those activities conducted by individuals communicating through a network, either an external network (e.g., the Internet) or an internal network. Local maintenance and diagnostic activities are those activities carried out by individuals physically present at the information system or information system component and not communicating across a network connection. This requirement applies to hardware/software diagnostic test equipment or tools. This requirement does not cover hardware/software components that may support information system maintenance, yet are a part of the system, for example, the software implementing "ping", "ls", "ipconfig", or the hardware and software implementing the monitoring port of an Ethernet switch.

Description

If events associated with non-local administrative access or diagnostic sessions are not logged, a major tool for assessing and investigating attacks would not be available. This requirement addresses auditing-related issues associated with maintenance tools used specifically for diagnostic and repair actions on organizational information systems. Non-local maintenance and diagnostic activities are those activities conducted by individuals communicating through a network, either an external network (e.g., the Internet) or an internal network. Local maintenance and diagnostic activities are those activities carried out by individuals physically present at the information system or information system component and not communicating across a network connection. This requirement applies to hardware/software diagnostic test equipment or tools. This requirement does not cover hardware/software components that may support information system maintenance, yet are a part of the system, for example, the software implementing "ping", "ls", "ipconfig", or the hardware and software implementing the monitoring port of an Ethernet switch.

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

Details

Check Text ( C-59369r1_chk )
In order to view the currently configured flags for the audit daemon, run the following command: sudo grep ^flags /etc/security/audit_control Administrative actions 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-63857r1_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.