The xinetd service can be disabled with the following command:
$ sudo systemctl mask --now xinetd.service
Rationale
The xinetd service provides a dedicated listener service for some programs,
which is no longer necessary for commonly-used network services. Disabling
it ensures that these uncommon services are not running, and also prevents
attacks against xinetd itself.
ISA-62443-2-1-2009, Security for Industrial Automation and Control Systems Part 2-1: Establishing an Industrial Automation and Control Systems Security Program
# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if rpm --quiet -q kernel-default; then
SYSTEMCTL_EXEC='/usr/bin/systemctl'
"$SYSTEMCTL_EXEC" stop 'xinetd.service'
"$SYSTEMCTL_EXEC" disable 'xinetd.service'
"$SYSTEMCTL_EXEC" mask 'xinetd.service'
# Disable socket activation if we have a unit file for it
if "$SYSTEMCTL_EXEC" -q list-unit-files xinetd.socket; then
"$SYSTEMCTL_EXEC" stop 'xinetd.socket'
"$SYSTEMCTL_EXEC" mask 'xinetd.socket'
fi
# The service may not be running because it has been started and failed,
# so let's reset the state so OVAL checks pass.
# Service should be 'inactive', not 'failed' after reboot though.
"$SYSTEMCTL_EXEC" reset-failed 'xinetd.service' || true
else
>&2 echo 'Remediation is not applicable, nothing was done'
fi