Audit log folders must be group-owned by wheel.

From Apple OS X 10.11 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000162

SV-81967r1_rule Audit log folders must be group-owned by wheel.

Vulnerability discussion

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

Check content

To check the group-ownership of the audit log folder, run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo ls -lde $(/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/grep '^dir' /etc/security/audit_control | awk -F: '{print $2}') The results should show the group (fourth column) to be "wheel", if not, this is a finding.

Fix text

For any log folder that has an incorrect group, run the following command: /usr/bin/sudo chgrp wheel [audit log folder]

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