Detections
Analytics

2.3.5 Ensure the operating system disables network management of the chrony daemon

Information

The operating system must disable network management of the chrony daemon.

Inaccurate time stamps make it more difficult to correlate events and can lead to an inaccurate analysis. Determining the correct time a particular event occurred on a system is critical when conducting forensic analysis and investigating system events. Sources outside the configured acceptable allowance (drift) may be inaccurate.

Not exposing the management interface of the chrony daemon on the network diminishes the attack space.

RHEL 8 operating systems utilize the "timedatectl" command to view the status of the "systemd-timesyncd.service". The "timedatectl" status will display the local time, UTC, and the offset from UTC.

Note that USNO offers authenticated NTP service to DoD and U.S. Government agencies operating on the NIPR and SIPR networks. Visit https://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/time/ntp/dod-customers for more information.

Solution

Configure the operating system disable network management of the chrony daemon by adding/modifying the following line in the /etc/chrony.conf file.

cmdport 0

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/19886

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6, 800-53|CM-7, 800-53|CM-7a., CAT|III, CSCv7|9.2, Rule-ID|SV-230486r928593_rule, Vuln-ID|V-230486

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: ed8a2fe8dbe36ef829dcd0f08b172367f0de95a54c17c52bd3425816d3b89eac