# Cis Ubuntu1804 V220 5 2 3 6

> Ensure use of privileged commands are collected

- Skill: `cyberstrikeus/cis-ubuntu1804-v220-5-2-3-6` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add cyberstrikeus/cis-ubuntu1804-v220-5-2-3-6`
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- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: cyberstrikeus (https://skillmd.com/u/cyberstrikeus)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/cyberstrikeus/cis-ubuntu1804-v220-5-2-3-6

---


# 5.2.3.6 Ensure use of privileged commands are collected

## Profile Applicability

- Level 2 - Server
- Level 2 - Workstation

## Description

Monitor privileged programs, those that have the `setuid` and/or `setgid` bit set on execution, to determine if unprivileged users are running these commands.

## Rationale

Execution of privileged commands by non-privileged users could be an indication of someone trying to gain unauthorized access to the system.

## Impact

Both the audit and remediation section of this recommendation will traverse all mounted file systems that is not mounted with either `noexec` or `nosuid` mount options. If there are large file systems without these mount options, such traversal will be significantly detrimental to the performance of the system.

Before running either the audit or remediation section, inspect the output of the following command to determine exactly which file systems will be traversed:

```bash
findmnt -n -l -k -it $(awk '/nodev/ { print $2 }' /proc/filesystems | paste -sd,) | grep -Pv "noexec|nosuid"
```

To exclude a particular file system due to adverse performance impacts, update the audit and remediation sections by adding a sufficiently unique string to the `grep` statement. The above command can be used to test the modified exclusions.

## Audit

### On disk configuration

Run the following command to check on disk rules:

```bash
RUNNING=0
PARTITION=$(findmnt -n -l -k -it $(awk '/nodev/ { print $2 }' /proc/filesystems | paste -sd,) | grep -Pv "noexec|nosuid" | awk '{print $1}')
for PARTITION in $(findmnt -n -l -k -it $(awk '/nodev/ { print $2 }' /proc/filesystems | paste -sd,) | grep -Pv "noexec|nosuid" | awk '{print $1}'); do
    for PRIVILEGED in $(find "${PARTITION}" -xdev -perm /6000 -type f); do
        grep -qr "${PRIVILEGED}" /etc/audit/rules.d && printf "OK: '${PRIVILEGED}' found in auditing rules.\n" || printf "Warning: '${PRIVILEGED}' not found in on disk configuration.\n"
    done
done
```

Verify that all output is `OK`.

### Running configuration

Run the following command to check loaded rules:

```bash
RUNNING=$(auditctl -l)
[ -n "${RUNNING}" ] && for PARTITION in $(findmnt -n -l -k -it $(awk '/nodev/ { print $2 }' /proc/filesystems | paste -sd,) | grep -Pv "noexec|nosuid" | awk '{print $1}'); do
    for PRIVILEGED in $(find "${PARTITION}" -xdev -perm /6000 -type f); do
        printf -- "${RUNNING}" | grep -q "${PRIVILEGED}" && printf "OK: '${PRIVILEGED}' found in auditing rules.\n" || printf "Warning: '${PRIVILEGED}' not found in running configuration.\n"
    done
done \
|| printf "ERROR: Variable 'RUNNING' is unset.\n"
```

Verify that all output is `OK`.

## Special mount points

If there are any special mount points that are not visible by default from `findmnt` as per the above audit, said file systems would have to be manually audited.

## Remediation

Edit or create a file in the `/etc/audit/rules.d/` directory, ending in `.rules` extension, with the relevant rules to monitor the use of privileged commands.

Example:

```bash
UID_MIN=$(awk '/^\s*UID_MIN/{print $2}' /etc/login.defs)
AUDIT_RULE_FILE="/etc/audit/rules.d/50-privileged.rules"
NEW_DATA=()
for PARTITION in $(findmnt -n -l -k -it $(awk '/nodev/ { print $2 }' /proc/filesystems | paste -sd,) | grep -Pv "noexec|nosuid" | awk '{print $1}'); do
    readarray -t DATA < <(find "${PARTITION}" -xdev -perm /6000 -type f | awk -v UID_MIN=${UID_MIN} '{print "-a always,exit -F path=" $1 " -F perm=x -F auid>="UID_MIN" -F auid!=unset -k privileged" }')
    for ENTRY in "${DATA[@]}"; do
        NEW_DATA+=("${ENTRY}")
    done
done
readarray &5 /dev/null -t OLD_DATA < "${AUDIT_RULE_FILE}"
COMBINED_DATA=( "${OLD_DATA[@]}" "${NEW_DATA[@]}" )
printf '%s\n' "${COMBINED_DATA[@]}" | sort -u > "${AUDIT_RULE_FILE}"
```

Merge and load the rules into active configuration:

```bash
augenrules --load
```

Check if reboot is required:

```bash
if [[ $(auditctl -s | grep "enabled") =~ "2" ]]; then printf "Reboot required to load rules\n"; fi
```

## Special mount points

If there are any special mount points that are not visible by default from just scanning `/`, change the `PARTITION` variable to the appropriate partition and re-run the remediation.

## References

- NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5: AU-3

## CIS Controls

| Version | Control                         | IG 1 | IG 2 | IG 3 |
| ------- | ------------------------------- | ---- | ---- | ---- |
| v8      | 8.5 Collect Detailed Audit Logs |      | ●    | ●    |
| v7      | 6.2 Activate audit logging      | ●    | ●    | ●    |

## MITRE ATT&CK Mappings

| Techniques / Sub-techniques | Tactics | Mitigations  |
| --------------------------- | ------- | ------------ |
| T1562, T1562.006            | TA0002  | M1026, M1047 |

## Additional Information

**Potential reboot required**: If the auditing configuration is locked (`-e 2`), then `augenrules` will not warn in any way that rules could not be loaded into the running configuration. A system reboot will be required to load the rules into the running configuration.

**System call structure**: For performance (`man 7 audit.rules`) reasons it is preferable to have all the system calls on one line. However, your configuration may have them on one line each or some other combination.