RHEL 9 must restrict exposed kernel pointer addresses access.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-257800	RHEL-09-213025	SV-257800r942971_rule		Medium

Description

Exposing kernel pointers (through procfs or "seq_printf()") exposes kernel writeable structures, which may contain functions pointers. If a write vulnerability occurs in the kernel, allowing write access to any of this structure, the kernel can be compromised. This option disallows any program without the CAP_SYSLOG capability to get the addresses of kernel pointers by replacing them with "0". Satisfies: SRG-OS-000132-GPOS-00067, SRG-OS-000433-GPOS-00192, SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-12-01

Details

Check Text ( C-61541r942970_chk )

Verify the runtime status of the kernel.kptr_restrict kernel parameter with the following command: $ sudo sysctl kernel.kptr_restrict kernel.kptr_restrict = 1 Verify the configuration of the kernel.kptr_restrict kernel parameter with the following command: $ sudo /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-sysctl --cat-config | egrep -v '^(#|;)' | grep -F kernel.kptr_restrict | tail -1 kernel.kptr_restrict =1 If "kernel.kptr_restrict" is not set to "1" or is missing, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-61465r925386_fix)
Add or edit the following line in a system configuration file in the "/etc/sysctl.d/" directory: kernel.kptr_restrict = 1 Reload settings from all system configuration files with the following command: $ sudo sysctl --system