STIGUI
V-258842CAT II — Medium severitySV-258842r1003645_rule

The Photon operating system must audit the execution of privileged functions.

Rule version PHTN-40-000107 · STIG v2 · 2026-08-26

Discussion

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 the use of privileged functions is one way to detect such misuse and identify the risk from insider threats and the advanced persistent threat.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000327-GPOS-00127, SRG-OS-000240-GPOS-00090, SRG-OS-000458-GPOS-00203, SRG-OS-000463-GPOS-00207, SRG-OS-000471-GPOS-00215

Check

At the command line, run the following command to output a list of files with setuid/setgid configured and their corresponding audit rules:

# for file in $(find / -xdev -path /var/lib/containerd -prune -o -path /var/lib/docker -prune -o \( -perm -4000 -o -perm -2000 \) -type f -print | sort); do echo "Found file with setuid/setgid configured: $file";rule="$(auditctl -l | grep "$file ")";echo "Audit Rule Result: $rule";echo ""; done

Example output:

Found file with setuid/setgid configured: /usr/bin/chage Audit Rule Result: -a always,exit -S all -F path=/usr/bin/chage -F perm=x -F auid>=1000 -F auid!=-1 -F key=privileged

Found file with setuid/setgid configured: /usr/bin/chfn Audit Rule Result: -a always,exit -S all -F path=/usr/bin/chfn -F perm=x -F auid>=1000 -F auid!=-1 -F key=privileged

If each file returned does not have a corresponding audit rule, 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.

Note: auid!=-1, auid!=4294967295, auid!=unset are functionally equivalent in this check and the output of the above commands may be displayed in either format.

Fix

Run the following steps for each file found in the check that does not have a corresponding line in the audit rules:

Navigate to and open:

/etc/audit/rules.d/audit.STIG.rules

Add the following line:

-a always,exit -F path=<path> -F perm=x -F auid>=1000 -F auid!=unset -F key=privileged

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.

Identifiers

Group ID
V-258842
Group title
SRG-OS-000327-GPOS-00127
Rule ID
SV-258842r1003645_rule
Check ID
C-62582r1003644_chk
Fix ID
F-62491r933586_fix