# Ensure permissions on /etc/cron.weekly are configured

Necessity: The '/etc/cron.weekly' directory contains scripts that are executed weekly with root privileges by the cron daemon. If this directory's permissions are misconfigured, unauthorized users could add, modify, or delete scripts. This could lead to privilege escalation, unauthorized system modifications, or denial of service by disrupting critical scheduled tasks. The primary risk is a full system compromise if an attacker can place a malicious script in this directory.

Auditing and Remediation: The audit script checks the ownership and permission settings of the '/etc/cron.weekly' directory, verifying that they align with security best practices. The remediation script uses the 'chown' and 'chmod' commands to reset the ownership to 'root:root' and the permissions to the specified octal value, ensuring that only the root user has control over its contents.

Recommended State Rationale: The recommended state for all levels (Basic, Moderate, and Strict) is '700:root:root'. This configuration is a standard security best practice (e.g., CIS Benchmark). Ownership by 'root:root' ensures that only the system administrator can manage the directory. The permission '700' ('rwx------') provides the owner (root) with full read, write, and execute permissions while denying all access to group members and all other users. This prevents any non-administrative user from viewing, modifying, or executing the scheduled tasks, effectively mitigating the risk of privilege escalation.

## Recommended State Configuration

| Security Level | Value |
|----------------|-------|
| **Basic** | `['700:root:root']` |
| **Moderate** | `['700:root:root']` |
| **Strict** | `['700:root:root']` |
| **Type** | `ENUM` |

## Audit Script Working

Bash script that outputs only the permissions, owner, and group of the '/etc/cron.weekly' directory, formatted as '<permissions>:<owner>:<group>'. For example: '700:root:root'.

## Remediation Script Working

Bash script that takes a single command-line argument in the format '<permissions>:<owner>:<group>' (e.g., '700:root:root'). The script must apply these permissions and ownership settings to the '/etc/cron.weekly' directory. It should return 'true' on success and 'false' on failure.

