Ubuntu OS must permit only authorized groups to own the audit configuration files.

Without the capability to restrict which roles and individuals 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.

Verify "/etc/audit/audit.rules", "/etc/audit/auditd.conf", and "/etc/audit/rules.d/*" files are owned by root group by using the following command:

     $ sudo ls -al /etc/audit/audit.rules /etc/audit/auditd.conf /etc/audit/rules.d/* | awk '{print $4, $9}'  
     root /etc/audit/audit.rules 
     root /etc/audit/auditd.conf 
     root /etc/audit/rules.d/audit.rules 

If "/etc/audit/audit.rules", "/etc/audit/auditd.conf", or "/etc/audit/rules.d/*" files are owned by a group other than "root", this is a finding.

Configure "/etc/audit/audit.rules", "/etc/audit/rules.d/*", and "/etc/audit/auditd.conf" files to be owned by root group by using the following command:

     $ sudo chown -R :root /etc/audit/audit.rules /etc/audit/auditd.conf /etc/audit/rules.d/*