Skip to content

Guide to the Secure Configuration of Amazon Linux 2023

Rules, Groups, and Values defined within the XCCDF Benchmark

  • Ensure No World-Writable Files Exist

    It is generally a good idea to remove global (other) write access to a file when it is discovered. However, check with documentation for specific applications before making changes. Also, monitor f...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Ensure All Files Are Owned by a Group

    If any file is not group-owned by a group present in /etc/group, the cause of the lack of group-ownership must be investigated. Following this, those files should be deleted or assigned to an appro...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Ensure All Files Are Owned by a User

    If any files are not owned by a user, then the cause of their lack of ownership should be investigated. Following this, the files should be deleted or assigned to an appropriate user. Locate the m...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Verify Permissions on Files with Local Account Information and Credentials

    The default restrictive permissions for files which act as important security databases such as <code>passwd</code>, <code>shadow</code>, <code>group</code>, and <code>gshadow</code> files must be ...
    Group
  • Verify Group Who Owns Backup group File

    To properly set the group owner of /etc/group-, run the command:
    $ sudo chgrp root /etc/group-
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Verify that audit tools are owned by group root

    The Amazon Linux 2023 operating system audit tools must have the proper ownership configured to protected against unauthorized access. Verify it by running the following command: <pre>$ stat -c "%...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Verify that audit tools are owned by root

    The Amazon Linux 2023 operating system audit tools must have the proper ownership configured to protected against unauthorized access. Verify it by running the following command: <pre>$ stat -c "%...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Verify that audit tools Have Mode 0755 or less

    The Amazon Linux 2023 operating system audit tools must have the proper permissions configured to protected against unauthorized access. Verify it by running the following command: <pre>$ stat -c ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Restrict Dynamic Mounting and Unmounting of Filesystems

    Linux includes a number of facilities for the automated addition and removal of filesystems on a running system. These facilities may be necessary in many environments, but this capability also ca...
    Group
  • Disable Mounting of cramfs

    To configure the system to prevent the <code>cramfs</code> kernel module from being loaded, add the following line to the file <code>/etc/modprobe.d/cramfs.conf</code>: <pre>install cramfs /bin/fa...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Disable Mounting of freevxfs

    To configure the system to prevent the <code>freevxfs</code> kernel module from being loaded, add the following line to the file <code>/etc/modprobe.d/freevxfs.conf</code>: <pre>install freevxfs /...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Disable Mounting of hfs

    To configure the system to prevent the <code>hfs</code> kernel module from being loaded, add the following line to the file <code>/etc/modprobe.d/hfs.conf</code>: <pre>install hfs /bin/false</pre>...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Disable Mounting of hfsplus

    To configure the system to prevent the <code>hfsplus</code> kernel module from being loaded, add the following line to the file <code>/etc/modprobe.d/hfsplus.conf</code>: <pre>install hfsplus /bin...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Disable Mounting of jffs2

    To configure the system to prevent the <code>jffs2</code> kernel module from being loaded, add the following line to the file <code>/etc/modprobe.d/jffs2.conf</code>: <pre>install jffs2 /bin/false...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Disable Mounting of squashfs

    To configure the system to prevent the <code>squashfs</code> kernel module from being loaded, add the following line to the file <code>/etc/modprobe.d/squashfs.conf</code>: <pre>install squashfs /...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Disable Mounting of udf

    To configure the system to prevent the <code>udf</code> kernel module from being loaded, add the following line to the file <code>/etc/modprobe.d/udf.conf</code>: <pre>install udf /bin/false</pre>...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Disable Modprobe Loading of USB Storage Driver

    To prevent USB storage devices from being used, configure the kernel module loading system to prevent automatic loading of the USB storage driver. To configure the system to prevent the <code>usb-...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Restrict Partition Mount Options

    System partitions can be mounted with certain options that limit what files on those partitions can do. These options are set in the <code>/etc/fstab</code> configuration file, and can be used to m...
    Group
  • Add nodev Option to /dev/shm

    The <code>nodev</code> mount option can be used to prevent creation of device files in <code>/dev/shm</code>. Legitimate character and block devices should not exist within temporary directories li...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Add noexec Option to /dev/shm

    The <code>noexec</code> mount option can be used to prevent binaries from being executed out of <code>/dev/shm</code>. It can be dangerous to allow the execution of binaries from world-writable tem...
    Rule Medium Severity

The content of the drawer really is up to you. It could have form fields, definition lists, text lists, labels, charts, progress bars, etc. Spacing recommendation is 24px margins. You can put tabs in here, and can also make the drawer scrollable.

Capacity
Modules