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← Back to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide

V-257968

CAT II (Medium)

RHEL 9 must not send Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) redirects.

Rule ID

SV-257968r1155748_rule

STIG

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V2R8

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

ICMP redirect messages are used by routers to inform hosts that a more direct route exists for a particular destination. These messages contain information from the system's route table possibly revealing portions of the network topology. The ability to send ICMP redirects is only appropriate for systems acting as routers. The sysctl --system command will load settings from all system configuration files. All configuration files are sorted by their filename in lexicographical order, regardless of the directories in which they reside. If multiple files specify the same option, the entry in the file with the lexicographically latest name will take precedence. Files are read from directories in the following list from top to bottom. Once a file of a given filename is loaded, any file of the same name in subsequent directories is ignored. /etc/sysctl.d/*.conf /run/sysctl.d/*.conf /usr/local/lib/sysctl.d/*.conf /usr/lib/sysctl.d/*.conf /lib/sysctl.d/*.conf /etc/sysctl.conf

Check Content

Verify RHEL 9 does not IPv4 ICMP redirect messages.

Check the value of the "all send_redirects" variables with the following command:

$ sudo sysctl net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects
net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects = 0

If "net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects" is not set to "0" and is not documented with the information system security officer (ISSO) as an operational requirement or is missing, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure RHEL 9 to not allow interfaces to perform IPv4 ICMP redirects.

Create a configuration file if it does not already exist:

$ sudo vi /etc/sysctl.d/ipv4_send_redirects.conf

Add the following line to the file:
net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects = 0

Reload settings from all system configuration files with the following command:

$ sudo sysctl --system