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RHEL 9 must restrict usage of ptrace to descendant processes.

An XCCDF Rule

Description

Unrestricted usage of ptrace allows compromised binaries to run ptrace on other processes of the user. Like this, the attacker can steal sensitive information from the target processes (e.g., SSH sessions, web browser, etc.) without any additional assistance from the user (i.e., without resorting to phishing). Satisfies: SRG-OS-000132-GPOS-00067, SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227

ID
SV-257811r1044872_rule
Version
RHEL-09-213080
Severity
Medium
References
Updated

Remediation Templates

A Manual Procedure

Configure the currently loaded kernel parameter to the secure setting:

$ sudo sysctl -w kernel.yama.ptrace_scope=1

Configure RHEL 9 to restrict usage of ptrace to descendant processes by adding the following line to a file in the "/etc/sysctl.d" directory: