RHEL-08-010360 - The RHEL 8 file integrity tool must notify the system administrator when changes to the baseline configuration or anomalies in the operation of any security functions are discovered within an organizationally defined frequency.

Information

Unauthorized changes to the baseline configuration could make the system vulnerable to various attacks or allow unauthorized access to the operating system. Changes to operating system configurations can have unintended side effects, some of which may be relevant to security.

Detecting such changes and providing an automated response can help avoid unintended, negative consequences that could ultimately affect the security state of the operating system. The operating system's Information System Security Manager (ISSM)/Information System Security Officer (ISSO) and System Administrators (SAs) must be notified via email and/or monitoring system trap when there is an unauthorized modification of a configuration item.

Notifications provided by information systems include messages to local computer consoles, and/or hardware indications, such as lights.

This capability must take into account operational requirements for availability for selecting an appropriate response. The organization may choose to shut down or restart the information system upon security function anomaly detection.

RHEL 8 comes with many optional software packages. A file integrity tool called Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment (AIDE) is one of those optional packages. This requirement assumes the use of AIDE; however, a different tool may be used if the requirements are met. Note that AIDE does not have a configuration that will send a notification, so a cron job is recommended that uses the mail application on the system to email the results of the file integrity check.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000363-GPOS-00150, SRG-OS-000446-GPOS-00200, SRG-OS-000447-GPOS-00201

Solution

Configure the file integrity tool to run automatically on the system at least weekly and to notify designated personnel if baseline configurations are changed in an unauthorized manner. The AIDE tool can be configured to email designated personnel with the use of the cron system.

The following example output is generic. It will set cron to run AIDE daily and to send email at the completion of the analysis.

$ sudo more /etc/cron.daily/aide

#!/bin/bash

/usr/sbin/aide --check | /bin/mail -s '$HOSTNAME - Daily AIDE integrity check run' root@example_server_name.mil

Note: Per requirement RHEL-08-010358, the 'mailx' package must be installed on the system to enable email functionality.

Item Details

Audit Name: DISA Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 STIG v2r1

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 59936ac1dda9673de7206858184b9e2f18bd9aea66b4b41cfa239dcddc5f3462

Detections

Analytics

RHEL-08-010360 - The RHEL 8 file integrity tool must notify the system administrator when changes to the baseline configuration or anomalies in the operation of any security functions are discovered within an organizationally defined frequency.

Information

Solution

See Also

Item Details