Force kernel panic on uncorrected MCEs

An XCCDF Rule

Description

A Machine Check Exception is an error generated by the CPU itdetects an error in itself, memory or I/O devices. These errors may be corrected and generate a check log entry, if an error cannot be corrected the kernel may panic or SIGBUS. To force the kernel to panic on any uncorrected error reported by Machine Check set the MCE tolerance to zero by adding mce=0 to the default GRUB 2 command line for the Linux operating system. To ensure that mce=0 is added as a kernel command line argument to newly installed kernels, add mce=0 to the default Grub2 command line for Linux operating systems. Modify the line within /etc/default/grub as shown below:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="... mce=0 ..."

Run the following command to update command line for already installed kernels:

# grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args="mce=0"

Rationale

Allowing uncorrected errors to result on a SIGBUS may allow an attacker to continue trying to exploit a vulnerability such as Rowhammer.

ID: xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_grub2_mce_argument
Severity: Medium
References: BP28(R8)
Updated: about 1 year ago

[customizations.kernel]
append = "mce=0"

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - grub2_mce_argument
  - low_disruption  - medium_complexity
  - medium_severity
  - reboot_required
  - restrict_strategy

- name: Check mce argument exists
  command: grep '^\s*GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=.*mce=' /etc/default/grub
  failed_when: false
  register: argcheck
  when:
  - '"grub2-common" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  tags:
  - grub2_mce_argument
  - low_disruption
  - medium_complexity
  - medium_severity
  - reboot_required
  - restrict_strategy

- name: Check mce argument exists
  command: grep '^\s*GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=' /etc/default/grub
  failed_when: false
  register: linecheck
  when:
  - '"grub2-common" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  tags:
  - grub2_mce_argument
  - low_disruption
  - medium_complexity
  - medium_severity
  - reboot_required
  - restrict_strategy

- name: Add mce argument
  ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
    line: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="mce=0 "
    state: present
    dest: /etc/default/grub
    create: true
    mode: '0644'
  when:
  - '"grub2-common" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  - argcheck is not skipped and linecheck is not skipped and argcheck.rc != 0 and
    linecheck.rc != 0
  tags:
  - grub2_mce_argument
  - low_disruption
  - medium_complexity
  - medium_severity
  - reboot_required
  - restrict_strategy

- name: Replace existing mce argument
  replace:
    path: /etc/default/grub
    regexp: mce=[a-zA-Z0-9,]+
    replace: mce=0
  when:
  - '"grub2-common" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  - argcheck is not skipped and linecheck is not skipped and argcheck.rc == 0 and
    linecheck.rc == 0
  tags:
  - grub2_mce_argument
  - low_disruption
  - medium_complexity
  - medium_severity
  - reboot_required
  - restrict_strategy

- name: Add mce argument
  replace:
    path: /etc/default/grub
    regexp: (^\s*GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=.*)"
    replace: \1 mce=0"
  when:
  - '"grub2-common" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  - argcheck is not skipped and linecheck is not skipped and argcheck.rc != 0 and
    linecheck.rc == 0
  tags:
  - grub2_mce_argument
  - low_disruption
  - medium_complexity
  - medium_severity
  - reboot_required
  - restrict_strategy

- name: Update grub defaults and the bootloader menu
  command: /sbin/grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args="mce=0"
  when:
  - '"grub2-common" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  tags:
  - grub2_mce_argument
  - low_disruption
  - medium_complexity
  - medium_severity
  - reboot_required
  - restrict_strategy

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if rpm --quiet -q grub2-common && { [ ! -f /.dockerenv ] && [ ! -f /run/.containerenv ]; }; then

# Correct the form of default kernel command line in GRUB
if grep -q '^\s*GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=.*mce=.*"'  '/etc/default/grub' ; then
       # modify the GRUB command-line if an mce= arg already exists       sed -i "s/\(^\s*GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=\".*\)mce=[^[:space:]]\+\(.*\"\)/\1mce=0\2/"  '/etc/default/grub'
# Add to already existing GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX parameters
elif grep -q '^\s*GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX='  '/etc/default/grub' ; then
       # no mce=arg is present, append it
       sed -i "s/\(^\s*GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=\".*\)\"/\1 mce=0\"/"  '/etc/default/grub'
# Add GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX parameters line
else
       echo "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=\"mce=0\"" >> '/etc/default/grub'
fi
grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args=mce=0

else
    >&2 echo 'Remediation is not applicable, nothing was done'
fi

Force kernel panic on uncorrected MCEs

Description

Rationale

Remediation - OS Build Blueprint

Remediation - Ansible

Remediation - Shell Script