7.2.1 Ensure syslog local logging is configured

Information

This recommendation implements a local syslog configuration.

Establishing a logging process via syslog provides system and security administrators with pertinent information relating to: login, mail, daemon, user and kernel activity. The recommendation is to enable local syslog logging, with a weekly rotation policy in a four weekly cycle. The log rotation isolates historical data which can be reviewed retrospectively if an issue is uncovered at a later date.

NOTE: Nessus has not performed this check. Please review the benchmark to ensure target compliance.

Solution

Explicitly define a log file for the auth.info output in /etc/syslog.conf :

printf "auth.infott/var/adm/authlog rotate time 1w files 4
" >> /etc/syslog.conf

NOTE: This ensures that remote login, sudo or su attempts are logged separately

Create the authlog file and make it readable by root only:

touch /var/adm/authlog
chown root:system /var/adm/authlog
chmod u=rw,go= /var/adm/authlog

Create an entry in /etc/syslog.conf to capture all other output of level info or higher, excluding authentication information, as this is to be captured within /var/adm/authlog :

printf "*.info;auth.nonet/var/adm/syslog rotate time 1w files 4
" >> /etc/syslog.conf

Create the syslog file:

touch /var/adm/syslog
chmod u=rw,g=r,o= /var/adm/syslog

Refresh syslogd to force the daemon to read the edited /etc/syslog.conf :

refresh -s syslogd

Impact:

This recommendation is manual because there are likely local requirements that surpass the basic recommendation here.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/10385

Item Details

Category: AUDIT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

References: 800-53|AU-2

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 2f0fa4c13937840d0a8e1a55a113ffa4a0299d850da44ea4aa7bd93832cd5eb9