UBTU-24-700020 - Ubuntu 24.04 LTS must generate system journal entries without revealing information that could be exploited by adversaries.

Information

Any operating system providing too much information in error messages risks compromising the data and security of the structure, and content of error messages must be carefully considered by the organization.

Organizations carefully consider the structure/content of error messages. The extent to which information systems are able to identify and handle error conditions is guided by organizational policy and operational requirements. Information that could be exploited by adversaries includes, for example, erroneous logon attempts with passwords entered by mistake as the username, mission/business information that can be derived from (if not stated explicitly by) information recorded, and personal information, such as account numbers, social security numbers, and credit card numbers.

Solution

Configure the system to set the appropriate permissions to the files and directories used by the systemd journal:

$ sudo nano /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/systemd.conf

Edit the following lines of the configuration file:

z /run/log/journal 2640 root systemd-journal - -
Z /run/log/journal/%m ~2640 root systemd-journal - -
z /var/log/journal 2640 root systemd-journal - -
z /var/log/journal/%m 2640 root systemd-journal - -
z /var/log/journal/%m/system.journal 0640 root systemd-journal - -

Note: The system must be restarted for these settings to take effect.

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_CAN_Ubuntu_24-04_LTS_V1R1_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: SYSTEM AND INFORMATION INTEGRITY

References: 800-53|SI-11a., CAT|II, CCI|CCI-001312, Rule-ID|SV-270757r1066760_rule, STIG-ID|UBTU-24-700020, Vuln-ID|V-270757

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 5c510fa5f5364a8d30c08d7d2b80f9012b3b500b3278da05510179cf7738192b