STIGUI
V-259172CAT II — Medium severitySV-259172r960930_rule

The vCenter PostgreSQL service must be configured to protect log files from unauthorized access.

Rule version VCPG-80-000020 · STIG v2 · 2026-08-26

Discussion

If audit data were to become compromised, then competent forensic analysis and discovery of the true source of potentially malicious system activity is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. In addition, access to audit records provides information an attacker could potentially use to his or her advantage.

To ensure the veracity of audit data, the information system and/or the application must protect audit information from any and all unauthorized access. This includes read, write, copy, etc.

Satisfies: SRG-APP-000118-DB-000059, SRG-APP-000119-DB-000060, SRG-APP-000120-DB-000061

Check

Verify the default log file permissions and permissions on existing log files.

At the command prompt, run the following command:

# /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/psql -U postgres -A -t -c "SHOW log_file_mode;"

Expected result:

0600

If "log_file_mode" is not set to "0600", this is a finding.

At the command prompt, run the following command:

# find /var/log/vmware/vpostgres/* -xdev -type f -a '(' -not -perm 600 -o -not -user vpostgres -o -not -group vpgmongrp ')' -exec ls -ld {} \;

If any files are returned, this is a finding.

Fix

A script is included with vCenter to generate a PostgreSQL STIG configuration.

At the command prompt, run the following commands:

# chmod +x /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/vmw_vpg_config/vmw_vpg_config.py
# /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/vmw_vpg_config/vmw_vpg_config.py --action stig_enable --pg-data-dir /storage/db/vpostgres
# chmod -x /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/vmw_vpg_config/vmw_vpg_config.py

Restart the PostgreSQL service by running the following command:

# vmon-cli --restart vmware-vpostgres

At the command prompt, run the following commands:

# chmod 600 <file>
# chown vpostgres:vpgmongrp <file>

Note: Replace <file> with the file that has incorrect permissions.

Identifiers

Group ID
V-259172
Group title
SRG-APP-000118-DB-000059
Rule ID
SV-259172r960930_rule
Check ID
C-62912r935418_chk
Fix ID
F-62821r935419_fix