The Photon operating system /var/log directory must be restricted.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-258831	PHTN-40-000073	SV-258831r933554_rule		Medium

Description
Any operating system providing too much information in error messages risks compromising the data and security of the structure, and content of error messages needs to be carefully considered by the organization. Organizations carefully consider the structure/content of error messages. The extent to which information systems are able to identify and handle error conditions is guided by organizational policy and operational requirements. Information that could be exploited by adversaries includes, for example, erroneous logon attempts with passwords entered by mistake as the username, mission/business information that can be derived from (if not stated explicitly by) information recorded, and personal information, such as account numbers, social security numbers, and credit card numbers.

Description

Any operating system providing too much information in error messages risks compromising the data and security of the structure, and content of error messages needs to be carefully considered by the organization. Organizations carefully consider the structure/content of error messages. The extent to which information systems are able to identify and handle error conditions is guided by organizational policy and operational requirements. Information that could be exploited by adversaries includes, for example, erroneous logon attempts with passwords entered by mistake as the username, mission/business information that can be derived from (if not stated explicitly by) information recorded, and personal information, such as account numbers, social security numbers, and credit card numbers.

STIG	Date
VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-10-29

Details

Check Text ( C-62571r933552_chk )
At the command line, run the following command to verify permissions on the /var/log directory: # stat -c "%n is owned by %U and group owned by %G with permissions of %a" /var/log Expected result: /var/log is owned by root and group owned by root with permissions of 755 If the /var/log directory is not owned by root, this is a finding. If the /var/log directory is not group owned by root, this is a finding. If the /var/log directory permissions are not set to 0755 or less, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-62571r933552_chk )

At the command line, run the following command to verify permissions on the /var/log directory:

# stat -c "%n is owned by %U and group owned by %G with permissions of %a" /var/log

Expected result:

/var/log is owned by root and group owned by root with permissions of 755

If the /var/log directory is not owned by root, this is a finding.
If the /var/log directory is not group owned by root, this is a finding.
If the /var/log directory permissions are not set to 0755 or less, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-62480r933553_fix)
At the command line, run the following commands: # chown root:root /var/log # chmod 0755 /var/log