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The atd service must be disabled.


Overview

Finding ID Version Rule ID IA Controls Severity
V-38641 RHEL-06-000262 SV-50442r2_rule Low
Description
The "atd" service could be used by an unsophisticated insider to carry out activities outside of a normal login session, which could complicate accountability. Furthermore, the need to schedule tasks with "at" or "batch" is not common.
STIG Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide 2015-05-26

Details

Check Text ( C-46201r2_chk )
If the system uses the "atd" service, this is not applicable.

To check that the "atd" service is disabled in system boot configuration, run the following command:

# chkconfig "atd" --list

Output should indicate the "atd" service has either not been installed, or has been disabled at all runlevels, as shown in the example below:

# chkconfig "atd" --list
"atd" 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off

Run the following command to verify "atd" is disabled through current runtime configuration:

# service atd status

If the service is disabled the command will return the following output:

atd is stopped


If the service is running, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-43590r2_fix)
The "at" and "batch" commands can be used to schedule tasks that are meant to be executed only once. This allows delayed execution in a manner similar to cron, except that it is not recurring. The daemon "atd" keeps track of tasks scheduled via "at" and "batch", and executes them at the specified time. The "atd" service can be disabled with the following commands:

# chkconfig atd off
# service atd stop