RHEL 10 must enforce group ownership by "root" or a restricted logging group for audit log files to prevent unauthorized access.

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

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000057-GPOS-00027, SRG-OS-000058-GPOS-00028, SRG-OS-000059-GPOS-00029, SRG-OS-000206-GPOS-00084

Verify RHEL 10 enforces group ownership by "root" or a restricted logging group for audit log files to prevent unauthorized access.

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

$ sudo grep "^log_file" /etc/audit/auditd.conf log_file = /var/log/audit/audit.log

Determine the audit log group by running the following command:

$ sudo grep -P '^[ ]*log_group[ ]+=.*$' /etc/audit/auditd.conf log_group = root

Check that the audit log file is owned by the correct group. Run the following command to display the owner of the audit log file:

$ sudo stat -c "%n %G" /var/log/audit/audit.log /var/log/audit/audit.log root

The audit log file must be owned by the "log_group" or by "root" if the "log_group" is not specified.

If audit log files are owned by the incorrect group, this is a finding.

Configure RHEL 10 to enforce group ownership by "root" or a restricted logging group for audit log files to prevent unauthorized access.

Identify the group that is configured to own the audit log:

$ sudo grep -P '^[ ]*log_group[ ]+=.*$' /etc/audit/auditd.conf

Change the ownership to that group using the following command:

$ sudo chgrp ${log_group} ${log_file}