The Ubuntu operating system must initiate session audits at system start-up.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-238299 | SRG-OS-000254-GPOS-00095 | UBTU-20-010198 | SV-238299r1069095_rule | 2025-05-16 | 2 |
Description
If auditing is enabled late in the start-up process, the actions of some start-up processes may not be audited. Some audit systems also maintain state information only available if auditing is enabled before a given process is created.
ℹ️ Check
Verify the Ubuntu operating system enables auditing at system startup.
Verify the auditing is enabled in grub with the following command:
$ sudo grep "^\s*linux" /boot/grub/grub.cfg
linux /boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-31-generic root=UUID=74d13bcd-6ebd-4493-b5d2-3ebc37d01702 ro audit=1
linux /boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-31-generic root=UUID=74d13bcd-6ebd-4493-b5d2-3ebc37d01702 ro recovery nomodeset audit=1
If any linux lines do not contain "audit=1", this is a finding.
Note: Output may vary by system.
✔️ Fix
Configure the Ubuntu operating system to produce audit records at system startup.
Edit the "/etc/default/grub" file and add "audit=1" to the "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX" option and to the "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT" option.
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="audit=1"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="audit=1"
To update the grub config file, run:
$ sudo update-grub