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V-234850

CAT III (Low)

The SUSE operating system must be configured to use Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Rule ID

SV-234850r958788_rule

STIG

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V2R7

CCIs

None

Discussion

If time stamps are not consistently applied and there is no common time reference, it is difficult to perform forensic analysis. Time stamps generated by the SUSE operating system include date and time. Time is commonly expressed in UTC, a modern continuation of GMT, or local time with an offset from UTC.

Check Content

Verify the SUSE operating system is configured to use UTC or GMT.

Check that the SUSE operating system is configured to use UTC or GMT with the following command:

> timedatectl status | grep -i "time zone"
Time zone: UTC (UTC, +0000)

If "Time zone" is not set to "UTC" or "GMT", this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the SUSE operating system is configured to use UTC or GMT.

To configure the system time zone to use UTC or GMT, run the following command, replacing [ZONE] with "UTC" or "GMT".

> sudo timedatectl set-timezone [ZONE]