Skip to content

Record Attempts to Alter Time Through clock_settime

An XCCDF Rule

Description

If the auditd daemon is configured to use the augenrules program to read audit rules during daemon startup (the default), add the following line to a file with suffix .rules in the directory /etc/audit/rules.d:

-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -S clock_settime -F a0=0x0 -F key=time-change
If the system is 64 bit then also add the following line:
-a always,exit -F arch=b64 -S clock_settime -F a0=0x0 -F key=time-change
If the auditd daemon is configured to use the auditctl utility to read audit rules during daemon startup, add the following line to /etc/audit/audit.rules file:
-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -S clock_settime -F a0=0x0 -F key=time-change
If the system is 64 bit then also add the following line:
-a always,exit -F arch=b64 -S clock_settime -F a0=0x0 -F key=time-change
The -k option allows for the specification of a key in string form that can be used for better reporting capability through ausearch and aureport. Multiple system calls can be defined on the same line to save space if desired, but is not required. See an example of multiple combined syscalls:
-a always,exit -F arch=b64 -S adjtimex,settimeofday -F key=audit_time_rules

Rationale

Arbitrary changes to the system time can be used to obfuscate nefarious activities in log files, as well as to confuse network services that are highly dependent upon an accurate system time (such as sshd). All changes to the system time should be audited.

ID
xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_audit_rules_time_clock_settime
Severity
Medium
References
Updated



Remediation - Kubernetes Patch

---
apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
spec:
  config:
    ignition:

Remediation - Shell Script

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if [ ! -f /.dockerenv ] && [ ! -f /run/.containerenv ] && rpm --quiet -q audit; then

# First perform the remediation of the syscall rule
# Retrieve hardware architecture of the underlying system
[ "$(getconf LONG_BIT)" = "32" ] && RULE_ARCHS=("b32") || RULE_ARCHS=("b32" "b64")

Remediation - Ansible

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - CJIS-5.4.1.1
  - NIST-800-171-3.1.7