SV-37470r1: Cron and crontab directories must have mode 0755 or less permissive. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

Cron and crontab directories must have mode 0755 or less permissive.

Description

Discussion Text

To protect the integrity of scheduled system jobs and to prevent malicious modification to these jobs, crontab files must be secured.

How this relates to the STIG checklist: STIG vs SCAP benchmark.

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000225

Additional Details

Responsibility

System Administrator

IA Controls

ECLP-1

References

DPMS Target Red Hat 5 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat 5 2154

SCC Automation Reference

The reconstructed evaluation script behind this rule's OVAL check(s) — every module a compound check combines, with this rule's own concrete values and DISA's SCC tool's real per-module mechanism curated from static teardown of SCC releases.

#!/bin/bash
# Reconstructed from oval:mil.disa.fso.rhel11:def:198
# Cron and crontab directories must have mode 0755 or less permissive.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# Test mode of /var/spool/cron is 755 or less permissive
# file_object (file_test)
test_1() {
  ( (stat -c '%A' '/var/spool/cron' | awk '{print (substr($0,7,1)=="s" || substr($0,7,1)=="S")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/var/spool/cron' | awk '{print (substr($0,4,1)=="s" || substr($0,4,1)=="S")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/var/spool/cron' | awk '{print (substr($0,9,1)=="w")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/var/spool/cron' | awk '{print (substr($0,6,1)=="w")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' )
}
# Test mode of /etc/cron.d is 755 or less permissive
# file_object (file_test)
test_2() {
  ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.d' | awk '{print (substr($0,7,1)=="s" || substr($0,7,1)=="S")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.d' | awk '{print (substr($0,4,1)=="s" || substr($0,4,1)=="S")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.d' | awk '{print (substr($0,9,1)=="w")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.d' | awk '{print (substr($0,6,1)=="w")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' )
}
# Test mode of /etc/cron.daily is 755 or less permissive
# file_object (file_test)
test_3() {
  ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.daily' | awk '{print (substr($0,7,1)=="s" || substr($0,7,1)=="S")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.daily' | awk '{print (substr($0,4,1)=="s" || substr($0,4,1)=="S")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.daily' | awk '{print (substr($0,9,1)=="w")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.daily' | awk '{print (substr($0,6,1)=="w")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' )
}
# Test mode of /etc/cron.hourly is 755 or less permissive
# file_object (file_test)
test_4() {
  ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.daily' | awk '{print (substr($0,7,1)=="s" || substr($0,7,1)=="S")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.daily' | awk '{print (substr($0,4,1)=="s" || substr($0,4,1)=="S")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.daily' | awk '{print (substr($0,9,1)=="w")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.daily' | awk '{print (substr($0,6,1)=="w")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' )
}
# Test mode of /etc/cron.monthly is 755 or less permissive
# file_object (file_test)
test_5() {
  ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.monthly' | awk '{print (substr($0,7,1)=="s" || substr($0,7,1)=="S")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.monthly' | awk '{print (substr($0,4,1)=="s" || substr($0,4,1)=="S")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.monthly' | awk '{print (substr($0,9,1)=="w")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.monthly' | awk '{print (substr($0,6,1)=="w")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' )
}
# Test mode of /etc/cron.weekly is 755 or less permissive
# file_object (file_test)
test_6() {
  ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.weekly' | awk '{print (substr($0,7,1)=="s" || substr($0,7,1)=="S")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.weekly' | awk '{print (substr($0,4,1)=="s" || substr($0,4,1)=="S")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.weekly' | awk '{print (substr($0,9,1)=="w")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' ) && ( (stat -c '%A' '/etc/cron.weekly' | awk '{print (substr($0,6,1)=="w")?"true":"false"}') | grep -qxF 'false' )
}

if ( test_1 && test_2 && test_3 && test_4 && test_5 && test_6 ); then
  echo "PASS"
else
  echo "FAIL"
fi

Assessment Script Powered by AISandbox-executed

A standalone Shell script to assess this control automatically. Review before running it in your environment.

Syntax-checked and actually executed in an isolated sandbox (not the real system this checks) — confirmed to run without errors.

#!/bin/sh
# oval:mil.disa.fso.rhel11:def:198
if [ ! -d "/var/spool/cron" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if [ ! -o /var/spool/cron ] && [ ! -w /var/spool/cron ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; else stat -c "%a" /var/spool/cron | grep -q "^[0-7]{3}$"; if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; else echo "FAIL"; exit 1; fi; fi
if [ ! -d "/etc/cron.d" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if [ ! -o /etc/cron.d ] && [ ! -w /etc/cron.d ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; else stat -c "%a" /etc/cron.d | grep -q "^[0-7]{3}$"; if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; else echo "FAIL"; exit 1; fi; fi
if [ ! -d "/etc/cron.daily" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if [ ! -o /etc/cron.daily ] && [ ! -w /etc/cron.daily ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; else stat -c "%a" /etc/cron.daily | grep -q "^[0-7]{3}$"; if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; else echo "FAIL"; exit 1; fi; fi
if [ ! -d "/etc/cron.hourly" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if [ ! -o /etc/cron.hourly ] && [ ! -w /etc/cron.hourly ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; else stat -c "%a" /etc/cron.hourly | grep -q "^[0-7]{3}$"; if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; else echo "FAIL"; exit 1; fi; fi

Remediation

Change the mode of the crontab directories.
# chmod 0755 <crontab directory>