V-72953
Severity: Medium
Generated
2019-05-20 15:48:11.984914
Status
PostgreSQL must generate audit records for all privileged activities or other system-level access.
NIST 800-53
STIG # | Description | Result |
---|---|---|
AU-12 | AU-12: Audit Generation | failed |
Guidance
Without tracking privileged activity, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one. System documentation should include a definition of the functionality considered privileged. A privileged function in this context is any operation that modifies the structure of the database, its built-in logic, or its security settings. This would include all Data Definition Language (DDL) statements and all security-related statements. In an SQL environment, it encompasses, but is not necessarily limited to: CREATE ALTER DROP GRANT REVOKE There may also be Data Manipulation Language (DML) statements that, subject to context, should be regarded as privileged. Possible examples in SQL include: TRUNCATE TABLE;DELETE, or DELETE affecting more than n rows, for some n, or DELETE without a WHERE clause; UPDATE or UPDATE affecting more than n rows, for some n, or UPDATE without a WHERE clause; any SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE to an application-defined security table executed by other than a security principal. Depending on the capabilities of PostgreSQL and the design of the database and associated applications, audit logging may be achieved by means of DBMS auditing features, database triggers, other mechanisms, or a combination of these. Note: That it is particularly important to audit, and tightly control, any action that weakens the implementation of this requirement itself, since the objective is to have a complete audit trail of all administrative activity.
Check
First, as the database administrator, verify pgaudit is enabled by running the following SQL: $ sudo su - postgres $ psql -c “SHOW shared_preload_libraries” If the output does not contain pgaudit, this is a finding. Next, verify that role, read, write, and ddl auditing are enabled: $ psql -c “SHOW pgaudit.log” If the output does not contain role, read, write, and ddl, this is a finding.
Fix
Note: The following instructions use the PGDATA environment variable. See supplementary content APPENDIX-F for instructions on configuring PGDATA. Using pgaudit PostgreSQL can be configured to audit these requests. See supplementary content APPENDIX-B for documentation on installing pgaudit. With pgaudit installed the following configurations can be made: $ sudo su - postgres $ vi ${PGDATA?}/postgresql.conf Add the following parameters (or edit existing parameters): shared_preload_libraries = ‘pgaudit’ pgaudit.log=‘ddl, role, read, write’ Now, as the system administrator, reload the server with the new configuration: # SYSTEMD SERVER ONLY $ sudo systemctl reload postgresql-9.5 # INITD SERVER ONLY $ sudo service postgresql-9.5 reload
Test Results
Result | |
---|---|
PostgreSQL query: SHOW shared_preload_libraries; output should include "pgaudit" | passed |
PostgreSQL query: SHOW pgaudit.log; output should include "ddl" | passed |
PostgreSQL query: SHOW pgaudit.log; output should include "read" | failed |
PostgreSQL query: SHOW pgaudit.log; output should include "role" | passed |
PostgreSQL query: SHOW pgaudit.log; output should include "write" | failed |
Code
control "V-72953" do
title "PostgreSQL must generate audit records for all privileged activities or
other system-level access."
desc "Without tracking privileged activity, it would be difficult to
establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or
identify those responsible for one.
System documentation should include a definition of the functionality
considered privileged.
A privileged function in this context is any operation that modifies the
structure of the database, its built-in logic, or its security settings.
This would include all Data Definition Language (DDL) statements and all
security-related statements. In an SQL environment, it encompasses, but is not
necessarily limited to:
CREATE
ALTER
DROP
GRANT
REVOKE
There may also be Data Manipulation Language (DML) statements that, subject to
context, should be regarded as privileged. Possible examples in SQL include:
TRUNCATE TABLE;DELETE, or DELETE affecting more than n rows, for some n, or
DELETE without a WHERE clause;
UPDATE or UPDATE affecting more than n rows, for some n, or UPDATE without a
WHERE clause;
any SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE to an application-defined security table
executed by other than a security principal.
Depending on the capabilities of PostgreSQL and the design of the database and
associated applications, audit logging may be achieved by means of DBMS
auditing features, database triggers, other mechanisms, or a combination of
these.
Note: That it is particularly important to audit, and tightly control, any
action that weakens the implementation of this requirement itself, since the
objective is to have a complete audit trail of all administrative activity."
impact 0.5
tag "severity": "medium"
tag "gtitle": "SRG-APP-000504-DB-000354"
tag "gid": "V-72953"
tag "rid": "SV-87605r1_rule"
tag "stig_id": "PGS9-00-005800"
tag "cci": "CCI-000172"
tag "nist": ["AU-12 c", "Rev_4"]
tag "check": "First, as the database administrator, verify pgaudit is enabled
by running the following SQL:
$ sudo su - postgres
$ psql -c \"SHOW shared_preload_libraries\"
If the output does not contain pgaudit, this is a finding.
Next, verify that role, read, write, and ddl auditing are enabled:
$ psql -c \"SHOW pgaudit.log\"
If the output does not contain role, read, write, and ddl, this is a finding."
tag "fix": "Note: The following instructions use the PGDATA environment
variable. See supplementary content APPENDIX-F for instructions on configuring
PGDATA.
Using pgaudit PostgreSQL can be configured to audit these requests. See
supplementary content APPENDIX-B for documentation on installing pgaudit.
With pgaudit installed the following configurations can be made:
$ sudo su - postgres
$ vi ${PGDATA?}/postgresql.conf
Add the following parameters (or edit existing parameters):
shared_preload_libraries = ‘pgaudit’
pgaudit.log='ddl, role, read, write'
Now, as the system administrator, reload the server with the new configuration:
# SYSTEMD SERVER ONLY
$ sudo systemctl reload postgresql-9.5
# INITD SERVER ONLY
$ sudo service postgresql-9.5 reload"
sql = postgres_session(PG_DBA, PG_DBA_PASSWORD, PG_HOST)
describe sql.query('SHOW shared_preload_libraries;', [PG_DB]) do
its('output') { should include 'pgaudit' }
end
pgaudit_types = %w(ddl read role write)
pgaudit_types.each do |type|
describe sql.query('SHOW pgaudit.log;', [PG_DB]) do
its('output') { should include type }
end
end
end