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Ensure that /etc/cron.allow exists

An XCCDF Rule

Description

The file /etc/cron.allow should exist and should be used instead of /etc/cron.deny.

Rationale

Access to crontab should be restricted. It is easier to manage an allow list than a deny list. Therefore, /etc/cron.allow needs to be created and used instead of /etc/cron.deny. Regardless of the existence of any of these files, the root administrative user is always allowed to setup a crontab.

ID
xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_file_cron_allow_exists
Severity
Medium
References
Updated

Remediation Templates

An Ansible Snippet

- name: Add empty /etc/cron.allow
  file:
    path: /etc/cron.allow
    state: touch
    owner: '0'
    mode: '0600'

A Shell Script

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if [ ! -f /.dockerenv ] && [ ! -f /run/.containerenv ]; then
touch /etc/cron.allow
    chown 0 /etc/cron.allow
    chmod 0600 /etc/cron.allow