NixOS audit configuration files must have a mode of 444 or less permissive.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-268120	SRG-OS-000063-GPOS-00032	ANIX-00-000660	SV-268120r1131043_rule	2025-08-19	1

Description
Without the capability to restrict the roles and individuals that can select which events are audited, unauthorized personnel may be able to prevent the auditing of critical events. Misconfigured audits may degrade the system's performance by overwhelming the audit log. Misconfigured audits may also make it more difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one.

Description

Without the capability to restrict the roles and individuals that can select which events are audited, unauthorized personnel may be able to prevent the auditing of critical events. Misconfigured audits may degrade the system's performance by overwhelming the audit log. Misconfigured audits may also make it more difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one.

ℹ️ Check
Verify that the NixOS audit configuration and service files have a mode of 444 or less permissive with the following commands: $ sudo find -L /etc/audit -type f -exec stat -L -c "%a %n" {} \; $ sudo find -L /etc/systemd/system -iname "audit" -type f -exec stat -L -c "%a %n" {} \; $ stat -c '%a %n' $(realpath /etc/systemd/system/audit.service) 444 /etc/audit/auditd.conf 444 /etc/systemd/system/audit.service 444 /etc/systemd/system/auditd.service 444 /etc/systemd/system/basic.target.wants/audit.service 444 /etc/systemd/system/sysinit.target.wants/audit.service 444 /nix/store/dr3i90b3n1fb06fr1gw12jfg9wb8dkrc-unit-auditd.service/auditd.service 444 /nix/store/dc6s6z7ykbmq70i5z8cff0agwsmp9jhm-unit-audit.service/audit.service If the audit configuration files have a mode more permissive than 444, this is a finding.

ℹ️ Check

Verify that the NixOS audit configuration and service files have a mode of 444 or less permissive with the following commands: $ sudo find -L /etc/audit -type f -exec stat -L -c "%a %n" {} \; $ sudo find -L /etc/systemd/system -iname "audit*" -type f -exec stat -L -c "%a %n" {} \; $ stat -c '%a %n' $(realpath /etc/systemd/system/audit*.service) 444 /etc/audit/auditd.conf 444 /etc/systemd/system/audit.service 444 /etc/systemd/system/auditd.service 444 /etc/systemd/system/basic.target.wants/audit.service 444 /etc/systemd/system/sysinit.target.wants/audit.service 444 /nix/store/dr3i90b3n1fb06fr1gw12jfg9wb8dkrc-unit-auditd.service/auditd.service 444 /nix/store/dc6s6z7ykbmq70i5z8cff0agwsmp9jhm-unit-audit.service/audit.service If the audit configuration files have a mode more permissive than 444, this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
Configure NixOS audit configuration and service files to have a mode of 444 or less permissive with the following command: Rebuild and switch to the new NixOS configuration: $ sudo nixos-rebuild switch