V-980

Discussion

Incorrect ownership of the cron or crontab directories could permit unauthorized users the ability to alter cron jobs and run automated jobs as privileged users. Failure to give ownership of cron or crontab directories to root or to bin provides the designated owner and unauthorized users with the potential to access sensitive information or change the system configuration which could weaken the system's security posture.

Check Content

Check the owner of the crontab directories.
Procedure:

# ls -ld /var/spool/cron /var/spool/cron/tabs


ls -ld /etc/crontab /etc/cron.{d,daily,hourly,monthly,weekly}
or 
# ls -ld /etc/cron*|grep -v deny


If the owner of any of the crontab directories is not root or bin, this is a finding.