Skip to content

Configure Kernel Parameter for Accepting Secure Redirects By Default

An XCCDF Rule

Description

To set the runtime status of the net.ipv4.conf.default.secure_redirects kernel parameter, run the following command:

$ sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.conf.default.secure_redirects=0
To make sure that the setting is persistent, add the following line to a file in the directory /etc/sysctl.d:
net.ipv4.conf.default.secure_redirects = 0

Rationale

Accepting "secure" ICMP redirects (from those gateways listed as default gateways) has few legitimate uses. It should be disabled unless it is absolutely required.

ID
xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_sysctl_net_ipv4_conf_default_secure_redirects
Severity
Medium
References
Updated



Remediation - Shell Script

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if [ ! -f /.dockerenv ] && [ ! -f /run/.containerenv ]; then

# Comment out any occurrences of net.ipv4.conf.default.secure_redirects from /etc/sysctl.d/*.conf files

for f in /etc/sysctl.d/*.conf /run/sysctl.d/*.conf /usr/local/lib/sysctl.d/*.conf /usr/lib/sysctl.d/*.conf; do

Remediation - Ansible

- name: List /etc/sysctl.d/*.conf files
  find:
    paths:
    - /etc/sysctl.d/
    - /run/sysctl.d/
    - /usr/local/lib/sysctl.d/