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V-258887

CAT II (Medium)

The Photon operating system must not respond to IPv4 Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echoes sent to a broadcast address.

Rule ID

SV-258887r933722_rule

STIG

VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R1

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

Responding to broadcast (ICMP) echoes facilitates network mapping and provides a vector for amplification attacks.

Check Content

At the command line, run the following command to verify ICMP echoes sent to a broadcast address are ignored:

# /sbin/sysctl net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts

Example result:

net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1

If the "net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts" kernel parameter is not set to "1", this is a finding.

Fix Text

Navigate to and open:

/etc/sysctl.d/zz-stig-hardening.conf

Add or update the following line:

net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1

At the command line, run the following command to load the new configuration:

# /sbin/sysctl --load /etc/sysctl.d/zz-stig-hardening.conf

Note: If the file zz-stig-hardening.conf does not exist, it must be created.