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V-239601

CAT II (Medium)

The time synchronization configuration file (such as /etc/ntp.conf) must be owned by root.

Rule ID

SV-239601r877038_rule

STIG

VMware vRealize Operations Manager 6.x SLES Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V2R2

CCIs

CCI-001891

Discussion

A synchronized system clock is critical for the enforcement of time-based policies and the correlation of logs and audit records with other systems. If an illicit time source is used for synchronization, the integrity of system logs and the security of the system could be compromised. If the configuration files controlling time synchronization are not owned by a system account, unauthorized modifications could result in the failure of time synchronization.

Check Content

Check the ownership of the NTP configuration file:

# ls -l /etc/ntp.conf

If the owner is not "root", this is a finding.

Fix Text

Change the owner of the NTP configuration file to "root":

# chown root /etc/ntp.conf