The system clock must be synchronized continuously.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-22290	GEN000241	SV-26292r4_rule		Medium

Description
A synchronized system clock is critical for the enforcement of time-based policies and the correlation of logs and audit records with other systems. Internal system clocks tend to drift and require periodic resynchronization to ensure their accuracy. Software, such as ntpd, can be used to continuously synchronize the system clock with authoritative sources. Alternatively, the system may be synchronized periodically, with a maximum of one day between synchronizations. If the system is completely isolated (i.e., it has no connections to networks or other systems), time synchronization is not required as no correlation of events or operation of time-dependent protocols between systems will be necessary. If the system is completely isolated, this requirement is not applicable.

Description

A synchronized system clock is critical for the enforcement of time-based policies and the correlation of logs and audit records with other systems. Internal system clocks tend to drift and require periodic resynchronization to ensure their accuracy. Software, such as ntpd, can be used to continuously synchronize the system clock with authoritative sources. Alternatively, the system may be synchronized periodically, with a maximum of one day between synchronizations. If the system is completely isolated (i.e., it has no connections to networks or other systems), time synchronization is not required as no correlation of events or operation of time-dependent protocols between systems will be necessary. If the system is completely isolated, this requirement is not applicable.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2016-06-01

Details

Check Text ( C-27388r7_chk )
Check to see if ntp is running in continuous mode. # ps -ax \| grep ntp If the process is found, then check the ntp.conf file for the maxpoll option setting. # grep maxpoll /etc/ntp.conf If the option is set to 17 or is not set, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-23444r3_fix)
Enable the NTP daemon for continuous synchronization. # service ntpd start ; chkconfig ntpd on Edit the "/etc/ntp.conf" file and add or update an entry to define "maxpoll" to "10".