Skip to content

Verify Group Who Owns Crontab

An XCCDF Rule

Description

To properly set the group owner of /etc/crontab, run the command:

$ sudo chgrp root /etc/crontab

Rationale

Service configuration files enable or disable features of their respective services that if configured incorrectly can lead to insecure and vulnerable configurations. Therefore, service configuration files should be owned by the correct group to prevent unauthorized changes.

ID
xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_file_groupowner_crontab
Severity
Medium
References
Updated



Remediation - Shell Script

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if rpm --quiet -q kernel; then

chgrp 0 /etc/crontab

else

Remediation - Ansible

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - NIST-800-53-AC-6(1)
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)