8.1.4 Record Events That Modify Date and Time Information - '64bit adjtimex'

Information

Capture events where the system date and/or time has been modified. The parameters in
this section are set to determine if the adjtimex (tune kernel clock), settimeofday (Set time,
using timeval and timezone structures) stime (using seconds since 1/1/1970) or
clock_settime (allows for the setting of several internal clocks and timers) system calls
have been executed and always write an audit record to the /var/log/audit.log file upon
exit, tagging the records with the identifier 'time-change'

*Rationale*

Unexpected changes in system date and/or time could be a sign of malicious activity on the
system.

Solution

For 64 bit systems, add the following lines to the /etc/audit/audit.rules file.
-a always,exit -F arch=b64 -S adjtimex -S settimeofday -k time-change
-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -S adjtimex -S settimeofday -S stime -k time-change
-a always,exit -F arch=b64 -S clock_settime -k time-change
-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -S clock_settime -k time-change
-w /etc/localtime -p wa -k time-change
# Execute the following command to restart auditd
# pkill -P 1-HUP auditdFor 32 bit systems, add the following lines to the /etc/audit/audit.rules file.

-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -S adjtimex -S settimeofday -S stime -k time-change
-a always,exit -F arch=b32 -S clock_settime -k time-change
-w /etc/localtime -p wa -k time-change
# Execute the following command to restart auditd
# pkill -P 1-HUP auditd

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/91

Item Details

Category: AUDIT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

References: 800-53|AU-12c.

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 9715c2b77accc73f7b11768e959d8db3e95bdf9288b823a53f7985823a2e3d3c