Rule version TOSS-05-000183 · STIG v1 · 2026-08-20
Service configuration files enable or disable features of their respective services that if configured incorrectly can lead to insecure and vulnerable configurations; therefore, service configuration files must be owned by the correct group to prevent unauthorized changes.
Verify the ownership of all cron configuration files with the command:
$ stat -c "%U %n" /etc/cron*
root /etc/cron.d root /etc/cron.daily root /etc/cron.deny root /etc/cron.hourly root /etc/cron.monthly root /etc/crontab root /etc/cron.weekly
If any crontab is not owned by root, this is a finding.
Configure any cron configuration not owned by root using the following command:
$ sudo chown root [cron config file]