You are using selinux. If you "setenforce 0" and then let cron run, you will get the output you expect. At the root shell, your selinux context is:

unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023

But when running from Cron, your selinux context starts as:

system_u:system_r:system_cronjob_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023

| to another command works, so you could have also done "| cat > file"

aide then does its own thing with selinux which causes redirection to fail.

You are using selinux. If you "setenforce 0" and then let cron run, you will get the output you expect. At the root shell, your selinux context is:

unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023

But when running from Cron, your selinux context starts as:

system_u:system_r:system_cronjob_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023

| to another command works, so you could have also done | cat > file

aide then does its own thing with selinux which causes redirection to fail.