Table of Contents

4.1.15 Ensure changes to system administration scope (sudoers) is collected (Scored)

Profile Applicability

Level 2 - Server 
Level 2 - Workstation

Description

Monitor scope changes for system administrations. If the system has been properly configured to force system administrators to log in as themselves first and then use the sudo command to execute privileged commands, it is possible to monitor changes in scope. The file /etc/sudoers will be written to when the file or its attributes have changed. The audit records will be tagged with the identifier “scope.”

Rationale

Changes in the /etc/sudoers file can indicate that an unauthorized change has been made to scope of system administrator activity.

Audit

Run the following command and verify output matches:

# grep scope /etc/audit/audit.rules 
-w /etc/sudoers -p wa -k scope 
-w /etc/sudoers.d -p wa -k scope

Remediation

Add the following line to the /etc/audit/audit.rules file:

-w /etc/sudoers -p wa -k scope 
-w /etc/sudoers.d -p wa -k scope