The macOS system must configure audit_control owner to root.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-259474	APPL-14-001120	SV-259474r958434_rule		Medium

Description

/etc/security/audit_control must have the owner set to root. The audit service must be configured with the correct ownership to prevent normal users from manipulation audit log configurations. Audit logs contain sensitive data about the system and users. If log files are set to be readable and writable only by system administrators, the risk is mitigated. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000057-GPOS-00027,SRG-OS-000058-GPOS-00028,SRG-OS-000059-GPOS-00029,SRG-OS-000063-GPOS-00032,SRG-OS-000256-GPOS-00097,SRG-OS-000257-GPOS-00098,SRG-OS-000258-GPOS-00099

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

Details

Check Text (C-63213r941042_chk)

Verify the macOS system is configured with the audit_control owner to root with the following command:

/bin/ls -dn /etc/security/audit_control | /usr/bin/awk '{print $3}'

If the result is not "0", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-63121r941043_fix)

Configure the macOS system with the audit_control owner to root with the following command:

/usr/sbin/chown root /etc/security/audit_control