RHEL 10 must enforce the audit log directory to have a mode of "0750" or less permissive to prevent unauthorized read access.
Overview
| Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
| V-281055 | RHEL-10-400190 | SV-281055r1165520_rule | CCI-000162 | medium |
| Description | ||||
| If users can write to audit logs, audit trails can be modified or destroyed. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000057-GPOS-00027, SRG-OS-000058-GPOS-00028, SRG-OS-000059-GPOS-00029 | ||||
| STIG | Date | |||
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2026-03-11 | |||
Details
Check Text (C-281055r1165520_chk)
Verify RHEL 10 enforces the audit log directory to have a mode of "0750" or less permissive to prevent unauthorized read access.
Determine where the audit logs are stored with the following command:
$ sudo grep "^log_file" /etc/audit/auditd.conf
log_file = /var/log/audit/audit.log
Find the group that owns audit logs:
$ sudo grep "^log_group" /etc/audit/auditd.conf
log_group = root
Run the following command to check the mode of the system audit logs:
$ sudo stat -c "%a %n" [audit_log_directory]
Replace "[audit_log_directory]" to the correct audit log directory path; by default this location is "/var/log/audit".
If the log_group is "root" or is not set, the correct permissions are "0700".
If the log_group is owned by anyone other than "root", the correct permissions are "0750".
If audit logs have a more permissive mode than is required, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-85521r1165519_fix)
Configure RHEL 10 so that the audit log directories have a mode of "0750" or less permissive to prevent unauthorized read access with the following command:
$ sudo chmod 0700 /var/log/audit
Note: The correct permissions are "0700" if the directory is owned by "root"; otherwise, the correct permissions are "0750".
Restart the audit daemon with the following command for the changes to take effect:
$ sudo service auditd restart