The Ubuntu operating system must record time stamps for audit records that can be mapped to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-238308	UBTU-20-010230	SV-238308r958788_rule		Low

Description

If time stamps are not consistently applied and there is no common time reference, it is difficult to perform forensic analysis. Time stamps generated by the operating system include date and time. Time is commonly expressed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), a modern continuation of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or local time with an offset from UTC.

STIG	Date
Canonical Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Security Technical Implementation Guide	2025-05-16

Details

Check Text (C-41518r654097_chk)

To verify the time zone is configured to use UTC or GMT, run the following command.

$ timedatectl status | grep -i "time zone"
Timezone: UTC (UTC, +0000)

If "Timezone" is not set to UTC or GMT, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-41477r654098_fix)

To configure the system time zone to use UTC or GMT, run the following command, replacing [ZONE] with UTC or GMT:

$ sudo timedatectl set-timezone [ZONE]