The macOS system must configure the system to audit all authorization and authentication events.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-259470	APPL-14-001044	SV-259470r1009588_rule		Medium

Description

The auditing system must be configured to flag authorization and authentication (aa) events. Authentication events contain information about the identity of a user, server, or client. Authorization events contain information about permissions, rights, and rules. If audit records do not include aa events, it is difficult to identify incidents and to correlate incidents to subsequent events. Audit records can be generated from various components within the information system (e.g., via a module or policy filter). Satisfies: SRG-OS-000365-GPOS-00152,SRG-OS-000392-GPOS-00172,SRG-OS-000458-GPOS-00203,SRG-OS-000463-GPOS-00207,SRG-OS-000465-GPOS-00209,SRG-OS-000466-GPOS-00210,SRG-OS-000467-GPOS-00211,SRG-OS-000468-GPOS-00212,SRG-OS-000471-GPOS-00215,SRG-OS-000471-GPOS-00216,SRG-OS-000475-GPOS-00220,SRG-OS-000477-GPOS-00222

STIG	Date
Apple macOS 14 (Sonoma) Security Technical Implementation Guide	2024-12-04

Details

Check Text (C-63209r941030_chk)

Verify the macOS system is configured to audit logon events with the following command:

/usr/bin/awk -F':' '/^flags/ { print $NF }' /etc/security/audit_control | /usr/bin/tr ',' '\n' | /usr/bin/grep -Ec 'aa'

If the result is not "1", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-63117r941031_fix)

Configure the macOS system to audit logon events with the following command:

/usr/bin/grep -qE "^flags.*[^-]aa" /etc/security/audit_control || /usr/bin/sed -i.bak '/^flags/ s/$/,aa/' /etc/security/audit_control; /usr/sbin/audit -s