Cis Ubuntu2004 V300 2 4 1 1

Ensure cron daemon is enabled and active

Profile

• Level 1 - Server
• Level 1 - Workstation

Description

The cron daemon is used to execute batch jobs on the system.

Rationale

While there may not be user jobs that need to be run on the system, the system does have maintenance jobs that may include security monitoring that have to run, and cron is used to execute them.

Audit

• IF - cron is installed on the system:

Run the following command to verify cron is enabled:

Command Line

# systemctl list-unit-files | awk '$1~/cron[d]?\.service/{print $2}'

Output:

enabled

Run the following command to verify that cron is active:

# systemctl list-units | awk '$1~/cron[d]?\.service/{print $3}'

Output:

active

Remediation

• IF - cron is installed on the system:

Run the following commands to unmask, enable, and start cron:

Command Line

# systemctl unmask "$(systemctl list-unit-files | awk '$1~/^cron[d]?\.service/{print $1}')"
# systemctl --now enable "$(systemctl list-unit-files | awk '$1~/cron[d]?\.service/{print $1}')"

References

1. NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5: CM-1, CM-2, CM-6, CM-7, IA-5

CIS Controls

MITRE ATT&CK Mappings