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Deactivate Wireless Network Interfaces

An XCCDF Rule

Description

Deactivating wireless network interfaces should prevent normal usage of the wireless capability.

Configure the system to disable all wireless network interfaces with the following command:

$ sudo nmcli radio all off

Rationale

The use of wireless networking can introduce many different attack vectors into the organization's network. Common attack vectors such as malicious association and ad hoc networks will allow an attacker to spoof a wireless access point (AP), allowing validated systems to connect to the malicious AP and enabling the attacker to monitor and record network traffic. These malicious APs can also serve to create a man-in-the-middle attack or be used to create a denial of service to valid network resources.

ID
xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_wireless_disable_interfaces
Severity
Medium
References
Updated



Remediation - Ansible

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - NIST-800-171-3.1.16
  - NIST-800-53-AC-18(3)

Remediation - Shell Script


if command -v nmcli >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
    nmcli radio all off
elif [ -n "$(find /sys/class/net/*/ -type d -name wireless)" ]; then
    interfaces=$(find /sys/class/net/*/wireless -type d -name wireless | xargs -0 dirname | xargs basename)