The operating system must generate audit records for privileged activities or other system-level access.

From Apple OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) Workstation Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000172

SV-72737r1_rule The operating system must generate audit records for privileged activities or other system-level access.

Vulnerability discussion

Misuse of privileged functions, either intentionally or unintentionally by authorized users, or by unauthorized external entities that have compromised information system accounts, is a serious and ongoing concern and can have significant adverse impacts on organizations. Auditing the use of privileged functions is one way to detect such misuse, and identify the risk from insider threats and the advanced persistent threat.

Check content

In order to view the currently configured flags for the audit daemon, run the following command: sudo grep ^flags /etc/security/audit_control Privileged activities are logged by way of the 'ad' flag. If 'ad' is not listed in the result of the check, this is a finding.

Fix text

To make sure the appropriate flags are enabled for auditing, run the following command: sudo sed -i.bak '/^flags/ s/$/,ad/' /etc/security/audit_control; sudo audit -s A text editor may also be used to implement the required update to the /etc/security/audit_control file.

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