The macOS system must configure system log files to be owned by root and group to wheel.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-259556	APPL-14-004030	SV-259556r958564_rule		Medium

Description

The system log files must be owned by root. System logs contain sensitive data about the system and users. If log files are set to only be readable and writable by system administrators, the risk is mitigated. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000205-GPOS-00083,SRG-OS-000206-GPOS-00084

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

Details

Check Text (C-63295r941288_chk)

Verify the macOS system is configured with system log files owned by root and group to wheel with the following command:

/usr/bin/stat -f '%Su:%Sg:%N' $(/usr/bin/grep -v '^#' /etc/newsyslog.conf | /usr/bin/awk '{ print $1 }') 2> /dev/null | /usr/bin/awk '!/^root:wheel:/{print $1}' | /usr/bin/wc -l | /usr/bin/tr -d ' '

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

Fix Text (F-63203r941289_fix)

Configure the macOS system with system log files owned by root and group to wheel with the following command:

/usr/sbin/chown root:wheel $(/usr/bin/stat -f '%Su:%Sg:%N' $(/usr/bin/grep -v '^#' /etc/newsyslog.conf | /usr/bin/awk '{ print $1 }') 2> /dev/null | /usr/bin/awk -F":" '!/^root:wheel:/{print $3}')