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Guide to the Secure Configuration of Ubuntu 16.04

Rules, Groups, and Values defined within the XCCDF Benchmark

  • Ensure Solid State Drives Do Not Contribute To Random-Number Entropy Pool

    For each solid-state drive on the system, run:
     # echo 0 > /sys/block/DRIVE/queue/add_random
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Kernel Configuration

    Contains rules that check the kernel configuration that was used to build it.
    Group
  • Hash function for kernel module signing

    The hash function to use when signing modules during kernel build process.
    Value
  • Key and certificate for kernel module signing

    The private key and certificate to use when signing modules during kernel build process. On systems where the OpenSSL ENGINE_pkcs11 is functional —...
    Value
  • Kernel panic timeout

    The time, in seconds, to wait until a reboot occurs. If the value is <code>0</code> the system never reboots. If the value is less than <code>0</co...
    Value
  • Do not allow ACPI methods to be inserted/replaced at run time

    This debug facility allows ACPI AML methods to be inserted and/or replaced without rebooting the system. This configuration is available from kerne...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Disable kernel support for MISC binaries

    Enabling <code>CONFIG_BINFMT_MISC</code> makes it possible to plug wrapper-driven binary formats into the kernel. This is specially useful for prog...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Enable support for BUG()

    Disabling this option eliminates support for BUG and WARN, reducing the size of your kernel image and potentially quietly ignoring numerous fatal c...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable compatibility with brk()

    Enabling compatiliby with <code>brk()</code> allows legacy binaries to run (i.e. those linked against libc5). But this compatibility comes at the c...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable the 32-bit vDSO

    Certain buggy versions of glibc (2.3.3) will crash if they are presented with a 32-bit vDSO that is not mapped at the address indicated in its segm...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Enable checks on credential management

    Enable this to turn on some debug checking for credential management. The additional code keeps track of the number of pointers from task_structs t...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Disable kernel debugfs

    <code>debugfs</code> is a virtual file system that kernel developers use to put debugging files into. Enable this option to be able to read and wri...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Enable checks on linked list manipulation

    Enable this to turn on extended checks in the linked-list walking routines. The configuration that was used to build kernel is available at <code>...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Enable checks on notifier call chains

    Enable this to turn on sanity checking for notifier call chains. This is most useful for kernel developers to make sure that modules properly unreg...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Enable checks on scatter-gather (SG) table operations

    Scatter-gather tables are mechanism used for high performance I/O on DMA devices. Enable this to turn on checks on scatter-gather tables. The conf...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Configure low address space to protect from user allocation

    This is the portion of low virtual memory which should be protected from userspace allocation. This configuration is available from kernel 3.14, bu...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable /dev/kmem virtual device support

    Disable support for the /dev/kmem device. The configuration that was used to build kernel is available at <code>/boot/config-*</code>. To chec...
    Rule Low Severity
  • Disable hibernation

    Enable the suspend to disk (STD) functionality, which is usually called "hibernation" in user interfaces. STD checkpoints the system and powers it ...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable IA32 emulation

    Disables support for legacy 32-bit programs under a 64-bit kernel. The configuration that was used to build kernel is available at <code>/boot/con...
    Rule Medium Severity
  • Disable the IPv6 protocol

    Disable support for IP version 6 (IPv6). The configuration that was used to build kernel is available at <code>/boot/config-*</code>. To check...
    Rule Medium Severity

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