PostgreSQL must allow only the ISSM (or individuals or roles appointed by the ISSM) to select which auditable events are to be audited.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-72891	PGS9-00-002600	SV-87543r1_rule		Medium

Description
Without the capability to restrict which roles and individuals can select which events are audited, unauthorized personnel may be able to prevent or interfere with the auditing of critical events. Suppression of auditing could permit an adversary to evade detection. Misconfigured audits can degrade the system's performance by overwhelming the audit log. Misconfigured audits may also make it more difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one.

Description

Without the capability to restrict which roles and individuals can select which events are audited, unauthorized personnel may be able to prevent or interfere with the auditing of critical events. Suppression of auditing could permit an adversary to evade detection. Misconfigured audits can degrade the system's performance by overwhelming the audit log. Misconfigured audits may also make it more difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one.

STIG	Date
PostgreSQL 9.x Security Technical Implementation Guide	2020-03-23

Details

Check Text ( C-73025r1_chk )
Note: The following instructions use the PGDATA environment variable. See supplementary content APPENDIX-F for instructions on configuring PGDATA. Check PostgreSQL settings and documentation to determine whether designated personnel are able to select which auditable events are being audited. As the database administrator (shown here as "postgres"), verify the permissions for PGDATA: $ ls -la ${PGDATA?} If anything in PGDATA is not owned by the database administrator, this is a finding. Next, as the database administrator, run the following SQL: $ sudo su - postgres $ psql -c "\du" Review the role permissions, if any role is listed as superuser but should not have that access, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-73025r1_chk )

Note: The following instructions use the PGDATA environment variable. See supplementary content APPENDIX-F for instructions on configuring PGDATA.

Check PostgreSQL settings and documentation to determine whether designated personnel are able to select which auditable events are being audited.

As the database administrator (shown here as "postgres"), verify the permissions for PGDATA:

$ ls -la ${PGDATA?}

If anything in PGDATA is not owned by the database administrator, this is a finding.

Next, as the database administrator, run the following SQL:

$ sudo su - postgres
$ psql -c "\du"

Review the role permissions, if any role is listed as superuser but should not have that access, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-79333r1_fix)
Configure PostgreSQL's settings to allow designated personnel to select which auditable events are audited. Using pgaudit allows administrators the flexibility to choose what they log. For an overview of the capabilities of pgaudit, see https://github.com/pgaudit/pgaudit. See supplementary content APPENDIX-B for documentation on installing pgaudit. See supplementary content APPENDIX-C for instructions on enabling logging. Only administrators/superuser can change PostgreSQL configurations. Access to the database administrator must be limited to designated personnel only. To ensure that postgresql.conf is owned by the database owner: $ chown postgres:postgres ${PGDATA?}/postgresql.conf $ chmod 600 ${PGDATA?}/postgresql.conf

Fix Text (F-79333r1_fix)

Configure PostgreSQL's settings to allow designated personnel to select which auditable events are audited.

Using pgaudit allows administrators the flexibility to choose what they log. For an overview of the capabilities of pgaudit, see https://github.com/pgaudit/pgaudit.

See supplementary content APPENDIX-B for documentation on installing pgaudit.

See supplementary content APPENDIX-C for instructions on enabling logging. Only administrators/superuser can change PostgreSQL configurations. Access to the database administrator must be limited to designated personnel only.

To ensure that postgresql.conf is owned by the database owner:

$ chown postgres:postgres ${PGDATA?}/postgresql.conf
$ chmod 600 ${PGDATA?}/postgresql.conf