5.2.3.2 Ensure actions as another user are always logged
Profile Applicability
- Level 2 - Server
- Level 2 - Workstation
Description
sudo provides users with temporary elevated privileges to perform operations, either as the superuser or another user.
Rationale
Creating an audit log of users with temporary elevated privileges and the operation(s) they performed is essential to reporting. Administrators will want to correlate the events written to the audit trail with the records written to sudo's logfile to verify if unauthorized commands have been executed.
Audit
64 Bit systems
On disk configuration
Run the following command to check the on disk rules:
awk '/^ *-a *always,exit/ \
&&/ -F *arch=b64/ \
&&(/ -F *auid!=unset/||/ -F *auid!=-1/||/ -F *auid!=4294967295/) \
&&/ -S/ \
&&/ execve/ \
&&(/ key= *[!-~]* *$/||/ -k *[!-~]* *$/)/' /etc/audit/rules.d/*.rules
Verify the output matches:
-a always,exit -F arch=b64 -C auid!=uid -F auid!=unset -S execve -k user_emulation
-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -C auid!=uid -F auid!=unset -S execve -k user_emulation
Running configuration
Run the following command to check loaded rules:
auditctl -l | awk '/^ *-a *always,exit/ \
&&/ -F *arch=b(32|64)/ \
&&(/ -F *auid!=unset/||/ -F *auid!=-1/||/ -F *auid!=4294967295/) \
&&/ -C/ \
&&/ execve/ \
&&(/ key= *[!-~]* *$/||/ -k *[!-~]* *$/)/'
Verify the output matches:
-a always,exit -F arch=b64 -S execve -C uid!=auid -F auid!=-1 -F key=user_emulation
-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -S execve -C uid!=auid -F auid!=-1 -F key=user_emulation
32 Bit systems
Follow the same procedures as for 64 bit systems and ignore any entries with b64.
Remediation
Create audit rules
Edit or create a file in the /etc/audit/rules.d/ directory, ending in .rules extension, with the relevant rules to monitor elevated privileges.
64 Bit systems
Example:
printf "
-a always,exit -F arch=b64 -C auid!=uid -F auid!=unset -S execve -k user_emulation
-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -C auid!=uid -F auid!=unset -S execve -k user_emulation
" >> /etc/audit/rules.d/50-user_emulation.rules
Load audit rules
Merge and load the rules into active configuration:
augenrules --load
Check if reboot is required:
if [[ $(auditctl -s | grep "enabled") =~ "2" ]]; then printf "Reboot required to load rules\n"; fi
32 Bit systems
Follow the same procedures as for 64 bit systems and ignore any entries with b64.
References
- NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5: AU-3
CIS Controls
| Version | Control | IG 1 | IG 2 | IG 3 |
|---|
| v8 | 8.5 Collect Detailed Audit Logs | | ● | ● |
| v7 | 4.9 Log and Alert on Unsuccessful Administrative Account Login | | ● | ● |
MITRE ATT&CK Mappings
| Techniques / Sub-techniques | Tactics | Mitigations |
|---|
| T1562, T1562.006 | TA0004 | M1047 |
Additional Information
Potential reboot required: If the auditing configuration is locked (-e 2), then augenrules will not warn in any way that rules could not be loaded into the running configuration. A system reboot will be required to load the rules into the running configuration.
System call structure: For performance (man 7 audit.rules) reasons it is preferable to have all the system calls on one line. However, your configuration may have them on one line each or some other combination.