The macOS system must be configured with audit log files owned by root.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-257172	APPL-13-001012	SV-257172r905149_rule		Medium

Description
The audit service must be configured to create log files with the correct ownership to prevent normal users from reading audit logs. Audit logs contain sensitive data about the system and users. If log files are set to only be readable and writable by root or administrative users with sudo, the risk is mitigated.

STIG	Date
Apple macOS 13 (Ventura) Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-08-28

Details

Check Text ( C-60857r905147_chk )
Verify the macOS system is configured with audit log files owned by root with the following command: /usr/bin/sudo /bin/ls -le $(/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/grep '^dir' /etc/security/audit_control | /usr/bin/awk -F: '{print $2}') | /usr/bin/grep -v current If the files are not owned by root, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-60798r905148_fix)
Configure the macOS system with audit log files owned by root with the following command: /usr/bin/sudo chown root [audit log file]