PGS9-00-011300 - PostgreSQL must off-load audit data to a separate log management facility; this must be continuous and in near real time for systems with a network connection to the storage facility and weekly or more often for stand-alone systems.

Information

Information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration.

Off-loading is a common process in information systems with limited audit storage capacity.

PostgreSQL may write audit records to database tables, to files in the file system, to other kinds of local repository, or directly to a centralized log management system. Whatever the method used, it must be compatible with off-loading the records to the centralized system.

Solution

Note: The following instructions use the PGDATA and PGVER environment variables. See supplementary content APPENDIX-F for instructions on configuring PGDATA and APPENDIX-H for PGVER.

Configure PostgreSQL or deploy and configure software tools to transfer audit records to a centralized log management system, continuously and in near-real time where a continuous network connection to the log management system exists, or at least weekly in the absence of such a connection.

To ensure that logging is enabled, review supplementary content APPENDIX-C for instructions on enabling logging.

With logging enabled, as the database administrator (shown here as 'postgres'), configure the follow parameters in postgresql.conf (the example uses the default values - tailor for environment):

Note: Consult the organization on how syslog facilities are defined in the syslog daemon configuration.

$ sudo su - postgres
$ vi ${PGDATA?}/postgresql.conf
log_destination = 'syslog'
syslog_facility = 'LOCAL0'
syslog_ident = 'postgres'

Now, as the system administrator, reload the server with the new configuration:

# SYSTEMD SERVER ONLY
$ sudo systemctl reload postgresql-${PGVER?}

# INITD SERVER ONLY
$ sudo service postgresql-${PGVER?} reload

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_PGS_SQL_9-x_V2R5_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: AUDIT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

References: 800-53|AU-4(1), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-001851, Rule-ID|SV-214144r961860_rule, STIG-ID|PGS9-00-011300, STIG-Legacy|SV-87697, STIG-Legacy|V-73045, Vuln-ID|V-214144

Plugin: PostgreSQLDB

Control ID: 809487aee9d0d8c25133a17d5549a76c57c74f60b8807a6b78e6b235c4da4136