V-257888

Discussion

If the permissions of cron configuration files or directories are modified from the operating system defaults, it may be possible for individuals to insert unauthorized cron jobs that perform unauthorized actions, including potentially escalating privileges.

Check Content

Run the following command to verify that the owner, group, and mode of cron configuration files and directories match the operating system defaults:

$ rpm --verify cronie crontabs | awk '! ($2 == "c" && $1 ~ /^.\..\.\.\.\..\./) {print $0}'

If the command returns any output, this is a finding.

If there are findings, run the following command to determine what the permissions are:

$ ls -ld /etc/cron*
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root  21 Oct  3  2024 /etc/cron.d
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root   6 May  1 09:03 /etc/cron.daily
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root   0 Oct  3  2024 /etc/cron.deny
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root  22 Mar  5 12:49 /etc/cron.hourly
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root   6 Mar 23  2022 /etc/cron.monthly
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 451 Mar 23  2022 /etc/crontab
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root   6 Mar 23  2022 /etc/cron.weekly