DISA STIGS Viewer

RHEL 8 must audit any script or executable called by cron as root or by any privileged user.

Overview

Finding ID Version Rule ID IA Controls Severity
V-274877 RHEL-08-030655 SV-274877r1106148_rule   Medium
Description
Any script or executable called by cron as root or by any privileged user must be owned by that user, must have the permissions set to 755 or more restrictive, and have no extended rights that allow a nonprivileged user to modify the script or executable.
STIG Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Security Technical Implementation Guide 2025-05-14

Details

Check Text (C-78978r1106147_chk)
Verify RHEL 8 is configured to audit the execution of any system call made by cron as root or as any privileged user.

$ sudo auditctl -l | grep /etc/cron.d
-w /etc/cron.d -p wa -k cronjobs

$ sudo auditctl -l | grep /var/spool/cron
-w /var/spool/cron -p wa -k cronjobs

If either of these commands do not return the expected output, or the lines are commented out, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-78883r1101908_fix)
Configure RHEL 8 to audit the execution of any system call made by cron as root or as any privileged user.

Add or update the following file system rules to "/etc/audit/rules.d/audit.rules":
auditctl -w /etc/cron.d/ -p wa -k cronjobs
auditctl -w /var/spool/cron/ -p wa -k cronjobs

To load the rules to the kernel immediately, use the following command:

$ sudo augenrules --load