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← Back to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide

V-257957

CAT II (Medium)

RHEL 9 must be configured to use TCP syncookies.

Rule ID

SV-257957r1155618_rule

STIG

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V2R8

CCIs

CCI-001095CCI-002385

Discussion

Preventing unauthorized information transfers mitigates the risk of information, including encrypted representations of information, produced by the actions of prior users/roles (or the actions of processes acting on behalf of prior users/roles) from being available to any current users/roles (or current processes) that obtain access to shared system resources (e.g., registers, main memory, hard disks) after those resources have been released back to information systems. The control of information in shared resources is also commonly referred to as object reuse and residual information protection. This requirement generally applies to the design of an information technology product, but it can also apply to the configuration of particular information system components that are, or use, such products. This can be verified by acceptance/validation processes in DOD or other government agencies. There may be shared resources with configurable protections (e.g., files in storage) that may be assessed on specific information system components. Restricting access to the kernel message buffer limits access to only root. This prevents attackers from gaining additional system information as a nonprivileged user. The sysctl --system command will load settings from all system configuration files. All configuration files are sorted by their filename in lexicographical order, regardless of the directories in which they reside. If multiple files specify the same option, the entry in the file with the lexicographically latest name will take precedence. Files are read from directories in the following list from top to bottom. Once a file of a given filename is loaded, any file of the same name in subsequent directories is ignored. /etc/sysctl.d/*.conf /run/sysctl.d/*.conf /usr/local/lib/sysctl.d/*.conf /usr/lib/sysctl.d/*.conf /lib/sysctl.d/*.conf /etc/sysctl.conf Satisfies: SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227, SRG-OS-000420-GPOS-00186, SRG-OS-000142-GPOS-00071

Check Content

Verify RHEL 9 is configured to use IPv4 TCP syncookies.

Check the value of all "tcp_syncookies" variables with the following command:

$ sudo sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies
net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1

If the network parameter "ipv4.tcp_syncookies" is not equal to "1" or nothing is returned, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure RHEL 9 to use TCP syncookies.

Create a configuration file if it does not already exist:

$ sudo vi /etc/sysctl.d/99-ipv4_tcp_syncookies.conf

Add the following line to the file:
net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1

Reload settings from all system configuration files with the following command:

$ sudo sysctl --system