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Audit log files must be owned by root.


Overview

Finding ID Version Rule ID IA Controls Severity
V-58891 AOSX-09-000331 SV-73321r1_rule Medium
Description
The audit service must be configured to create log files with the correct ownership 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 only be readable and writable by root or administrative users with sudo, the risk is mitigated.
STIG Date
Apple OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) Workstation Security Technical Implementation Guide 2017-01-05

Details

Check Text ( C-59737r1_chk )
To check the ownership of the audit log files, run the following command:

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

The results should show the owner (third column) to be root. If not, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-64275r2_fix)
For any log file that returns an incorrect owner, run the following command:

sudo chown root [audit log file]

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