RHEL 9 must log IPv4 packets with impossible addresses.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-257960	RHEL-09-253025	SV-257960r925867_rule		Medium

Description
The presence of "martian" packets (which have impossible addresses) as well as spoofed packets, source-routed packets, and redirects could be a sign of nefarious network activity. Logging these packets enables this activity to be detected.

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

Details

Check Text ( C-61701r925865_chk )

Verify RHEL 9 logs IPv4 martian packets. Check the value of the accept source route variable with the following command: $ sudo sysctl net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1 If the returned line does not have a value of "1", a line is not returned, or the line is commented out, this is a finding. Check that the configuration files are present to enable this network parameter. $ sudo /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-sysctl --cat-config | egrep -v '^(#|;)' | grep -F net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians | tail -1 net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1 If "net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians" is not set to "1" or is missing, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-61625r925866_fix)
Configure RHEL 9 to log martian packets on IPv4 interfaces. Add or edit the following line in a single system configuration file, in the "/etc/sysctl.d/" directory: net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians=1 Load settings from all system configuration files with the following command: $ sudo sysctl --system