RHEL 10 must enforce group ownership of audit logs by "root" or by a restricted logging group to prevent unauthorized read access.
Overview
| Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
| V-281050 | RHEL-10-400165 | SV-281050r1184685_rule | CCI-000162 | medium |
| Description | ||||
| Unauthorized disclosure of audit records can reveal system and configuration data to attackers, thus compromising its confidentiality. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000057-GPOS-00027, SRG-OS-000058-GPOS-00028, SRG-OS-000059-GPOS-00029, SRG-OS-000206-GPOS-00084 | ||||
| STIG | Date | |||
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2026-03-11 | |||
Details
Check Text (C-281050r1184685_chk)
Verify RHEL 10 audit logs are group-owned by "root" or a restricted logging group.
Determine where the audit logs are stored with the following command:
$ sudo grep -iw log_file /etc/audit/auditd.conf
log_file = /var/log/audit/audit.log
Using the location of the audit log file, determine if the audit log is group-owned by "root" using the following command:
$ sudo stat -c "%G %n" /var/log/audit/audit.log
root /var/log/audit/audit.log
If the audit log is not group-owned by "root" or the configured alternative logging group, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-85516r1165504_fix)
Configure RHEL 10 to prevent unauthorized read access by ensuring that audit logs are group-owned by root or by a restricted logging group.
Change the group of the directory of "/var/log/audit" to be owned by a correct group.
Identify the group that is configured to own audit logs:
$ sudo grep -P '^[ ]*log_group[ ]+=.*$' /etc/audit/auditd.conf
Change the ownership to that group:
$ sudo chgrp ${GROUP} /var/log/audit