STIGUI
V-260512CAT II — Medium severitySV-260512r958564_rule

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS must be configured so that the "journalctl" command is not accessible by unauthorized users.

Rule version UBTU-22-232140 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-09

Discussion

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.

Check

Verify that the "journalctl" command has a permission set of "740" by using the following command:

     $ sudo find /usr/bin/journalctl -exec stat -c "%n %a" {} \; 
     /usr/bin/journalctl 740 

If "journalctl" is not set to "740", this is a finding.

Fix

Configure "journalctl" to have a permission set of "740":

     $ sudo chmod 740 /usr/bin/journalctl

Identifiers

Group ID
V-260512
Group title
SRG-OS-000205-GPOS-00083
Rule ID
SV-260512r958564_rule
Check ID
C-64241r953347_chk
Fix ID
F-64149r953348_fix