V-215323

Discussion

Only authorized personnel should be aware of errors and the details of the errors. Error messages are an indicator of an organization's operational state or can identify AIX or platform. Additionally, Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and operational information must not be revealed through error messages to unauthorized personnel or their designated representatives. The structure and content of error messages must be carefully considered by the organization and development team. The extent to which the information system is able to identify and handle error conditions is guided by organizational policy and operational requirements.

Check Content

Check the mode of log files:

# ls -lL /var/log /var/log/syslog /var/adm 
/var/adm:
total 376
drw-r-----    2 root     system          256 Jan 24 12:31 SRC
drwx------    4 root     system          256 Jan 24 07:28 config
-rw-r-----    1 root     system         1081 Jan 24 09:05 dev_pkg.fail
-rw-r-----    1 root     system          250 Jan 24 09:05 dev_pkg.success
-rw-------    1 root     system           64 Jan 24 09:43 sulog
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     system          256 Jan 24 12:28 sw
drwx------    2 root     system          256 Jan 24 08:06 wpars

/var/log:
total 8
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     system          256 Jan 24 08:44 aso
-rw-r-----    1 root     system          603 Jan 24 10:30 cache_mgt.dr.log

If any of the log files have modes more permissive than "0640", this is a finding.

NOTE: Do not confuse system logfiles with audit logs. Any subsystems that require less stringent permissions must be documented.