Accounting

The standard itself is very detailed. Still, it sometimes unclear on what specifically to implement and when. This guide will help with translating the PCI standard to technical security controls on Linux systems. This document has the goal to help you further secure your network and pass the PCI DSS audit. It is important to note that this guide is a set of generic tips. Your IT environment might require additional security measures.

The Linux Audit framework is a powerful tool to audit system events. From running executables up to system calls, everything can be logged. However, all this audit logging comes at the price of decreased system performance. Let’s have a look at how we can optimize our audit rules. Performance tips Good auditd performance will reduce stress on the Linux kernel and lower its impact. Before changing anything to your system, we suggest benchmarking your system performance before and after.

Companies who need to comply with the PCI DSS standard need to log all actions which are executed by the root user or those accounts with similar administrative privileges. 10.2.2 Verify all actions taken by any individual with root or administrative privileges are logged. The Linux kernel allows the monitoring of executed commands. This monitoring and logging can be done with the Linux audit framework. Using this framework, we can monitor the right system calls and create an audit trail.