V-72969
Severity: Medium
Generated
2019-05-20 15:48:11.984914
Status
PostgreSQL must generate audit records when unsuccessful attempts to execute privileged activities or other system-level access occur.
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
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. To aid in diagnosis, it is necessary to keep track of failed attempts in addition to the successful ones.
Check
As the database administrator (shown here as “postgres”), create the role bob by running the following SQL: $ sudo su - postgres $ psql -c “CREATE ROLE bob”
Next, change the current role to bob and attempt to execute privileged activity: $ psql -c “CREATE ROLE stig_test SUPERUSER” $ psql -c “CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEDB” $ psql -c “CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEROLE” $ psql -c “CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEUSER”
Now, as the database administrator (shown here as “postgres”), verify that
an audit event was produced (use the latest log):
$ sudo su - postgres
$ cat ${PGDATA?}/pg_log/
< 2016-02-23 20:16:32.396 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >ERROR: must be superuser to create superusers < 2016-02-23 20:16:32.396 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >STATEMENT: CREATE ROLE stig_test SUPERUSER; < 2016-02-23 20:16:48.725 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >ERROR: permission denied to create role < 2016-02-23 20:16:48.725 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >STATEMENT: CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEDB; < 2016-02-23 20:16:54.365 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >ERROR: p ermission denied to create role < 2016-02-23 20:16:54.365 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >STATEMENT: CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEROLE; < 2016-02-23 20:17:05.949 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >ERROR: must be superuser to create superusers < 2016-02-23 20:17:05.949 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >STATEMENT: CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEUSER; If audit records are not produced, this is a finding.
Fix
Configure PostgreSQL to produce audit records when unsuccessful attempts to execute privileged SQL. All denials are logged by default if logging is enabled. To ensure that logging is enabled, review supplementary stdout APPENDIX-C for instructions on enabling logging.
Test Results
Result | |
---|---|
Command: `sed -nre '/2019-05-16 08:11.*LOG:\s+starting tests for V-72969/,$p' /var/vcap/sys/log/postgresql/Thu.pg_log` stdout should match /ERROR:\s+must be superuser to create superusers/ | passed |
Command: `sed -nre '/2019-05-16 08:11.*LOG:\s+starting tests for V-72969/,$p' /var/vcap/sys/log/postgresql/Thu.pg_log` stdout should match /ERROR:\s+permission denied to create role/ | passed |
Command: `sed -nre '/2019-05-16 08:11.*LOG:\s+starting tests for V-72969/,$p' /var/vcap/sys/log/postgresql/Thu.pg_log` stdout should match /STATEMENT:\s+SET ROLE inspec_v72969_role; CREATE ROLE stig_test SUPERUSER;/ | passed |
Command: `sed -nre '/2019-05-16 08:11.*LOG:\s+starting tests for V-72969/,$p' /var/vcap/sys/log/postgresql/Thu.pg_log` stdout should match /STATEMENT:\s+SET ROLE inspec_v72969_role; CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEDB;/ | passed |
Command: `sed -nre '/2019-05-16 08:11.*LOG:\s+starting tests for V-72969/,$p' /var/vcap/sys/log/postgresql/Thu.pg_log` stdout should match /STATEMENT:\s+SET ROLE inspec_v72969_role; CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEROLE;/ | passed |
Command: `sed -nre '/2019-05-16 08:11.*LOG:\s+starting tests for V-72969/,$p' /var/vcap/sys/log/postgresql/Thu.pg_log` stdout should match /STATEMENT:\s+SET ROLE inspec_v72969_role; CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEUSER;/ | passed |
Code
control "V-72969" do
title "PostgreSQL must generate audit records when unsuccessful attempts to
execute privileged activities or other system-level access occur."
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
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.
To aid in diagnosis, it is necessary to keep track of failed attempts in
addition to the successful ones."
impact 0.5
tag "severity": "medium"
tag "gtitle": "SRG-APP-000504-DB-000355"
tag "gid": "V-72969"
tag "rid": "SV-87621r1_rule"
tag "stig_id": "PGS9-00-006500"
tag "cci": "CCI-000172"
tag "nist": ["AU-12 c", "Rev_4"]
tag "check": "As the database administrator (shown here as \"postgres\"),
create the role bob by running the following SQL:
$ sudo su - postgres
$ psql -c \"CREATE ROLE bob\"
Next, change the current role to bob and attempt to execute privileged activity:
$ psql -c \"CREATE ROLE stig_test SUPERUSER\"
$ psql -c \"CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEDB\"
$ psql -c \"CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEROLE\"
$ psql -c \"CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEUSER\"
Now, as the database administrator (shown here as \"postgres\"), verify that
an audit event was produced (use the latest log):
$ sudo su - postgres
$ cat ${PGDATA?}/pg_log/<latest_log>
< 2016-02-23 20:16:32.396 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >ERROR: must be
superuser to create superusers
< 2016-02-23 20:16:32.396 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >STATEMENT:
CREATE ROLE stig_test SUPERUSER;
< 2016-02-23 20:16:48.725 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >ERROR:
permission denied to create role
< 2016-02-23 20:16:48.725 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >STATEMENT:
CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEDB;
< 2016-02-23 20:16:54.365 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >ERROR: p
ermission denied to create role
< 2016-02-23 20:16:54.365 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >STATEMENT:
CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEROLE;
< 2016-02-23 20:17:05.949 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >ERROR: must be
superuser to create superusers
< 2016-02-23 20:17:05.949 EST postgres 56cfa74f.79eb postgres: >STATEMENT:
CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEUSER;
If audit records are not produced, this is a finding."
tag "fix": "Configure PostgreSQL to produce audit records when unsuccessful
attempts to execute privileged SQL.
All denials are logged by default if logging is enabled. To ensure that
logging is enabled, review supplementary stdout APPENDIX-C for instructions
on enabling logging."
sql = postgres_session(PG_DBA, PG_DBA_PASSWORD, PG_HOST)
log_directory_query = sql.query('SHOW log_directory;', [PG_DB])
log_directory = log_directory_query.output
current_log_command = "ls -1t #{log_directory}/*.pg_log | head -1"
current_log = command(current_log_command).stdout.strip
control = File.basename(__FILE__, File.extname(__FILE__))
message = "starting tests for #{control}"
message_sql = "DO language plpgsql $$ BEGIN "\
"RAISE LOG '#{message}'; END $$;"
start = Time.now.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M')
get_logs = "sed -nre '/#{start}.*LOG:\\s+#{message}/,$p' #{current_log}"
create_role = 'CREATE ROLE bob;'
set_role = 'SET ROLE bob;'
drop_role = 'DROP ROLE bob;'
create_role_superuser = "#{set_role} CREATE ROLE stig_test SUPERUSER;"
create_role_createdb = "#{set_role} CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEDB;"
create_role_createrole = "#{set_role} CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEROLE;"
create_role_createuser = "#{set_role} CREATE ROLE stig_test CREATEUSER;"
permission_denied_error = 'permission denied to create role'
must_be_superuser_error = 'must be superuser to create superusers'
sql.query(message_sql, [PG_DB])
sql.query(create_role, [PG_DB])
sql.query(create_role_superuser, [PG_DB])
sql.query(create_role_createdb, [PG_DB])
sql.query(create_role_createrole, [PG_DB])
sql.query(create_role_createuser, [PG_DB])
sql.query(drop_role, [PG_DB])
describe command(get_logs) do
its('stdout') { should match /ERROR:\s+#{must_be_superuser_error}/ }
its('stdout') { should match /ERROR:\s+#{permission_denied_error}/ }
its('stdout') { should match /STATEMENT:\s+#{create_role_superuser}/ }
its('stdout') { should match /STATEMENT:\s+#{create_role_createdb}/ }
its('stdout') { should match /STATEMENT:\s+#{create_role_createrole}/ }
its('stdout') { should match /STATEMENT:\s+#{create_role_createuser}/ }
end
end