SV-257927r991589: RHEL 9 cron configuration files directory must be group-owned by root. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 STIG SCAP Benchmark

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

RHEL 9 cron configuration files directory must be group-owned by root.

Description

Discussion Text

Service configuration files enable or disable features of their respective services that if configured incorrectly can lead to insecure and vulnerable configurations; therefore, service configuration files should be owned by the correct group to prevent unauthorized changes.

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

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000366

References

DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 5551

Checks

DISA STIG (Manual Reference)

Verify the group ownership of all cron configuration files with the following command:

$ stat -c "%G %n" /etc/cron*

root /etc/cron.d
root /etc/cron.daily
root /etc/cron.deny
root /etc/cron.hourly
root /etc/cron.monthly
root /etc/crontab
root /etc/cron.weekly

If any crontab is not group owned by root, this is a finding.

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.

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 Definition: oval:mil.disa.stig.rhel9os:def:257927

if [ ! -d "/etc" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
for file in /etc/cron.*; do if [ ! -f "$file" ]; then continue; fi; gid=$(stat -c "%G" "$file"); if [ "$gid" != "root" ]; then echo "FAIL"; exit 1; fi; done; echo "PASS"; exit 0;

Remediation

Configure any cron configuration not group-owned by root with the following command:

$ sudo chgrp root [cron config file]