The SMTP service log file must be owned by root.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-837	GEN004480	SV-37501r3_rule		Medium

Description
If the SMTP service log file is not owned by root, then unauthorized personnel may modify or delete the file to hide a system compromise.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2017-03-01

Details

Check Text ( C-36158r4_chk )
Locate any mail log files by checking the syslog configuration file. Procedure: The check procedure is the same for both sendmail and Postfix. Identify any log files configured for the "mail" service (excluding mail.none) at any severity level and check the ownership. Depending on what system is used for log processing, either /etc/syslog.conf or /etc/rsyslog.conf will be the logging configuration file. For syslog: # egrep "mail\.[^n][^/]" /etc/syslog.conf\|sed 's/^[^/]//'\|xargs ls -lL For rsyslog: # egrep "mail\.[^n][^/]" /etc/rsyslog.conf\|sed 's/^[^/]//'\|xargs ls -lL If any mail log file is not owned by root, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-36158r4_chk )

Locate any mail log files by checking the syslog configuration file.

Procedure:
The check procedure is the same for both sendmail and Postfix.
Identify any log files configured for the "mail" service (excluding mail.none) at any severity level and check the ownership. Depending on what system is used for log processing, either /etc/syslog.conf or /etc/rsyslog.conf will be the logging configuration file.
For syslog:
# egrep "mail\.[^n][^/]*" /etc/syslog.conf|sed 's/^[^/]*//'|xargs ls -lL

For rsyslog:
# egrep "mail\.[^n][^/]*" /etc/rsyslog.conf|sed 's/^[^/]*//'|xargs ls -lL

If any mail log file is not owned by root, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-31408r1_fix)
Change the ownership of the sendmail log file. Procedure: The fix procedure is the same for both sendmail and Postfix. # chown root