The audit system should collect write events to /etc/passwd file for all users and root.
If the auditd daemon is configured
to use the augenrules program to read audit rules during daemon
startup (the default), add the following lines to a file with suffix
.rules in the directory /etc/audit/rules.d:
-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -S open_by_handle_at -F a2&03 -F path=/etc/passwd -F auid>=1000 -F auid!=unset -F key=modify
If the auditd daemon is configured to use the auditctl
utility to read audit rules during daemon startup, add the following lines to
/etc/audit/audit.rules file:
-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -S open_by_handle_at -F a2&03 -F path=/etc/passwd -F auid>=1000 -F auid!=unset -F key=modify
If the system is 64 bit then also add the following line:
-a always,exit -F arch=b64 -S open_by_handle_at -F a2&03 -F path=/etc/passwd -F auid>=1000 -F auid!=unset -F key=modify