tmpfiles.d/systemd.conf in systemd before v230 does not explicitely set ACLs on persistent system.journal. This could allow improper permission set on the file. seclist report: http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2016/q2/34 Suse BTS: https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=972612 Fixed in commit: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/commit/afae249efa4774c6676738ac5de6aeb4daf4889f For additional information: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/1397
The persistent journal logging, the feature at fault, is disabled by default : Default journald storage is set to "auto". To run into the bug, the storage value needs to be changed to "persistent" to force journald to create the /var/log/journal folder on its own. In RHEL documentation, enabling persistent storage is suggested by simply creating the /var/log/journal directory, which does not trigger the bug : 20.10.5. Enabling Persistent Storage https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/System_Administrators_Guide/s1-Using_the_Journal.html