STIGQter: STIG Summary: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide Version: 2 Release: 9 Benchmark Date: 01 Jul 2026:

RHEL 9 must enable auditing of processes that start prior to the audit daemon.

DISA Rule

SV-257796r1044847_rule

Vulnerability Number

V-257796

Group Title

SRG-OS-000037-GPOS-00015

Rule Version

RHEL-09-212055

Severity

CAT III

CCI(s)

• CCI-000130 - Ensure that audit records containing information that establishes what type of event occurred.
• CCI-000135 - Generate audit records containing the organization-defined additional information that is to be included in the audit records.
• CCI-000169 - Provide audit record generation capability for the event types the system is capable of auditing as defined in AU-2 a. on organization-defined information system components.
• CCI-000172 - Generate audit records for the event types defined in AU-2 c that include the audit record content defined in AU-3.
• CCI-001464 - Initiates session audits automatically at system start-up.
• CCI-002884 - Log organization-defined audit events for nonlocal maintenance and diagnostic sessions.

Weight

10

Fix Recommendation

Enable auditing of processes that start prior to the audit daemon with the following command:

$ sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args="audit=1"

Add or modify the following line in "/etc/default/grub" to ensure the configuration survives kernel updates:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="audit=1"

Check Contents

Verify that GRUB 2 is configured to enable auditing of processes that start prior to the audit daemon with the following commands:

Check that the current GRUB 2 configuration enables auditing:

$ sudo grubby --info=ALL | grep args | grep -v 'audit=1'

If any output is returned, this is a finding.

Check that auditing is enabled by default to persist in kernel updates:

$ grep audit /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="audit=1"

If "audit" is not set to "1", is missing, or is commented out, this is a finding.

Vulnerability Number

V-257796

Documentable

False

Rule Version

RHEL-09-212055

Severity Override Guidance

Verify that GRUB 2 is configured to enable auditing of processes that start prior to the audit daemon with the following commands:

Check that the current GRUB 2 configuration enables auditing:

$ sudo grubby --info=ALL | grep args | grep -v 'audit=1'

If any output is returned, this is a finding.

Check that auditing is enabled by default to persist in kernel updates:

$ grep audit /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="audit=1"

If "audit" is not set to "1", is missing, or is commented out, this is a finding.

Check Content Reference

M

Target Key

5551