STIGUI
V-248734CAT II — Medium severitySV-248734r958434_rule

OL 8 audit logs must be group-owned by root to prevent unauthorized read access.

Rule version OL08-00-030090 · STIG v2 · 2026-08-24

Discussion

Unauthorized disclosure of audit records can reveal system and configuration data to attackers, thus compromising its confidentiality.

Audit information includes all information (e.g., audit records, audit settings, audit reports) needed to successfully audit OL 8 activity.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000057-GPOS-00027, SRG-OS-000058-GPOS-00028, SRG-OS-000059-GPOS-00029

Check

Verify the audit logs are group-owned by "root".

Determine where the audit logs are stored with the following command:

$ sudo grep -iw log_file /etc/audit/auditd.conf 

log_file = /var/log/audit/audit.log

Using the location of the audit log file, determine if the audit log is group-owned by "root" using the following command:

$ sudo ls -al /var/log/audit/audit.log 

rw------- 2 root root 23 Jun 11 11:56 /var/log/audit/audit.log

If the audit log is not group-owned by "root", this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the audit log to be protected from unauthorized read access by setting the correct group-owner as "root" with the following command:

$ sudo chgrp root [audit_log_file] 

Replace "[audit_log_file]" to the correct audit log path. By default, this location is "/var/log/audit/audit.log".

Identifiers

Group ID
V-248734
Group title
SRG-OS-000057-GPOS-00027
Rule ID
SV-248734r958434_rule
Check ID
C-52168r779766_chk
Fix ID
F-52122r779767_fix