STIGUI
V-279541CAT II — Medium severitySV-279541r1192389_rule

Nutanix OS must audit all account change actions.

Rule version NXAC-OS-000018 · STIG v1 · 2026-09-01

Discussion

Once an attacker establishes access to a system, the attacker often attempts to create a persistent method of reestablishing access. One way to accomplish this is for the attacker to create an account. Auditing account creation actions provides logging that can be used for forensic purposes.

To address access requirements, many operating systems may be integrated with enterprise-level authentication/access/auditing mechanisms that meet or exceed access control policy requirements.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000004-GPOS-00004, SRG-OS-000239-GPOS-00089, SRG-OS-000240-GPOS-00090, SRG-OS-000241-GPOS-00091, SRG-OS-000303-GPOS-00120, SRG-OS-000001-GPOS-00001

Check

Verify the OS is configured to audit all account change actions.

Run the following command to verify account creation and modification is audited:

$ sudo auditctl -l | grep "audit_account_changes"

If the command does not return the following output, this is a finding.

-w /etc/group -p wa -k audit_account_changes -w /etc/passwd -p wa -k audit_account_changes -w /etc/gshadow -p wa -k audit_account_changes -w /etc/shadow -p wa -k audit_account_changes -w /etc/security/opasswd -p wa -k audit_account_changes

Fix

Configure Nutanix OS to audit all account change actions.

1. For AOS, configure the audit rules.

$ sudo salt-call state.sls security/CVM/auditCVM

2. For Prism Central, configure the audit rules.

$ sudo salt-call state.sls security/PCVM/auditPCVM

3. For Files, configure the audit rules.

$ sudo salt-call state.sls security/AFS/auditAFS

4. For AHV, configure the audit rules.

$ sudo salt-call state.sls security/KVM/auditKVM

Identifiers

Group ID
V-279541
Group title
SRG-OS-000004-GPOS-00004
Rule ID
SV-279541r1192389_rule
Check ID
C-84094r1192388_chk
Fix ID
F-83999r1191586_fix