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V-257795

CAT III (Low)

RHEL 9 must enable mitigations against processor-based vulnerabilities.

Rule ID

SV-257795r1044845_rule

STIG

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V2R8

CCIs

CCI-000381 CCI-002824

Discussion

Kernel page-table isolation is a kernel feature that mitigates the Meltdown security vulnerability and hardens the kernel against attempts to bypass kernel address space layout randomization (KASLR). Satisfies: SRG-OS-000433-GPOS-00193, SRG-OS-000095-GPOS-00049

Check Content

Verify RHEL 9 enables kernel page-table isolation with the following command:

$ sudo grubby --info=ALL | grep args | grep -v 'pti=on'

If any output is returned, this is a finding.

Check that kernel page-table isolation is enabled by default to persist in kernel updates: 

$ grep pti /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="pti=on"

If "pti" is not set to "on", is missing or commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure RHEL 9 to enable kernel page-table isolation with the following command:

$ sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args="pti=on"

Add or modify the following line in "/etc/default/grub" to ensure the configuration survives kernel updates:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="pti=on"