GEN000241 - The system clock must be synchronized continuously - 'maxpoll 10'

Information

A synchronized system clock is critical for the enforcement of time-based policies and the correlation of logs and audit records with other systems. Internal system clocks tend to drift and require periodic resynchronization to ensure their accuracy. Software, such as ntpd, can be used to continuously synchronize the system clock with authoritative sources. Alternatively, the system may be synchronized periodically, with a maximum of one day between synchronizations.

If the system is completely isolated (i.e., it has no connections to networks or other systems), time synchronization is not required as no correlation of events or operation of time-dependent protocols between systems will be necessary. If the system is completely isolated, this requirement is not applicable.

Solution

Enable the NTP daemon for continuous synchronization.
# service ntpd start ; chkconfig ntpd on

Edit the '/etc/ntp.conf' file and add or update an entry to define 'maxpoll' to '10'.

See Also

http://iasecontent.disa.mil/stigs/zip/U_RedHat_5_V1R18_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6b., CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000366, Group-ID|V-22290, Rule-ID|SV-26292r4_rule, STIG-ID|GEN000241, Vuln-ID|V-22290

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: e413e99e6acfec608b86faa5c1561c998b920ffba05f3a4fa508492af50b6a0b