Rule version PHTN-40-000019 · STIG v2 · 2026-08-26
Misuse of privileged functions, either intentionally or unintentionally by authorized users, or by unauthorized external entities that have compromised information system accounts, is a serious and ongoing concern and can have significant adverse impacts on organizations. Auditing all actions by superusers is one way to detect such misuse and identify the risk from insider threats and the advanced persistent threat.
Satisfies: SRG-OS-000042-GPOS-00020, SRG-OS-000326-GPOS-00126
At the command line, run the following command to verify audit rules exist to audit privileged functions:
# auditctl -l | grep execve
Expected result:
-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -S execve -C uid!=euid -F euid=0 -F key=execpriv -a always,exit -F arch=b64 -S execve -C uid!=euid -F euid=0 -F key=execpriv -a always,exit -F arch=b32 -S execve -C gid!=egid -F egid=0 -F key=execpriv -a always,exit -F arch=b64 -S execve -C gid!=egid -F egid=0 -F key=execpriv
If the output does not match the expected result, this is a finding.
Note: This check depends on the "auditd" service to be in a running state for accurate results. The "auditd" service is enabled in control PHTN-40-000016.
Navigate to and open:
/etc/audit/rules.d/audit.STIG.rules
Add or update the following lines:
-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -S execve -C uid!=euid -F euid=0 -F key=execpriv -a always,exit -F arch=b64 -S execve -C uid!=euid -F euid=0 -F key=execpriv -a always,exit -F arch=b32 -S execve -C gid!=egid -F egid=0 -F key=execpriv -a always,exit -F arch=b64 -S execve -C gid!=egid -F egid=0 -F key=execpriv
At the command line, run the following command to load the new audit rules:
# /sbin/augenrules --load
Note: An "audit.STIG.rules" file is provided with this guidance for placement in "/etc/audit/rules.d" that contains all rules needed for auditd.
Note: An older "audit.STIG.rules" may exist and may reference older "GEN" SRG IDs. This file can be removed and replaced as necessary with an updated one.