enable_cron.sh says cron is disabled even though it is enabled

[lbr38]

OS: Debian 12
Virt: LXC container
Version of the debian-cis script: latest (pulled from master)

The script says that cron service is disabled even though it is enabled and started:

5.1.1_enable_cron         [ KO ] Check Failed
5.1.1_enable_cron         [ KO ] cron is disabled
5.1.1_enable_cron         [ KO ] Check Failed

● cron.service - Regular background program processing daemon
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/cron.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Thu 2025-08-07 09:09:38 CEST; 44min ago
       Docs: man:cron(8)
   Main PID: 98 (cron)
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 4915)
     Memory: 3.3M
     CGroup: /system.slice/cron.service
             └─98 /usr/sbin/cron -f

Debug log:

5.1.1_enable_cron         [DBG ] Audit argument detected, setting status to audit
5.1.1_enable_cron         [DBG ] Unknown option passed
5.1.1_enable_cron         [DBG ] Unknown option passed
5.1.1_enable_cron         [DBG ] Audit argument detected, setting status to audit
5.1.1_enable_cron         [DBG ] cron is installed
5.1.1_enable_cron         [DBG ] init process is not '/sbin/init'
5.1.1_enable_cron         [DBG ] host was not started using '/sbin/init', systemd should not be available
5.1.1_enable_cron         [ KO ] cron is disabled
5.1.1_enable_cron         [ KO ] Check Failed

I have no clue what to do.
Looks like the issue is due to yesterday changes a9d2e76

Thanks for the help

[damcav35]

Hi @lbr38,

you're right, the issue is probably here : https://github.com/ovh/debian-cis/blob/master/lib/utils.sh#L323
Sorry it caused you some issue.

It was tested on our side with a LXC using a standard debian bookworm image from https://images.linuxcontainers.org/

Could you share some details with us, on how is your LXC configured ?
I would be interested in the output of cat /proc/1/cmdline if possible, in order to reproduce and fix the issue.

Regards

[lbr38]

@damcav35 Thanks for your help

Here is the output:

cat /proc/1/cmdline
/lib/systemd/systemd--system--deserialize=25

Our LXC is also a standard debian 12 image
It is hosted on Proxmox 6 (Debian 10)

[damcav35]

@lbr38 could you confirm the latest master branch fix your issue ?