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The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must ignore Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) redirect messages.


Overview

Finding ID Version Rule ID IA Controls Severity
V-204615 RHEL-07-040641 SV-204615r880815_rule Medium
Description
ICMP redirect messages are used by routers to inform hosts that a more direct route exists for a particular destination. These messages modify the host's route table and are unauthenticated. An illicit ICMP redirect message could result in a man-in-the-middle attack.
STIG Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide 2022-12-06

Details

Check Text ( C-4739r880813_chk )
Verify the system ignores IPv4 ICMP redirect messages.

# grep -r net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects /run/sysctl.d/* /etc/sysctl.d/* /usr/local/lib/sysctl.d/* /usr/lib/sysctl.d/* /lib/sysctl.d/* /etc/sysctl.conf 2> /dev/null

If "net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects" is not configured in the /etc/sysctl.conf file or in any of the other sysctl.d directories, is commented out, or does not have a value of "0", this is a finding.

Check that the operating system implements the "accept_redirects" variables with the following command:

# /sbin/sysctl -a | grep net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects
net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0

If the returned line does not have a value of "0", this is a finding.

If conflicting results are returned, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-4739r880814_fix)
Set the system to ignore IPv4 ICMP redirect messages by adding the following line to "/etc/sysctl.conf" or a configuration file in the /etc/sysctl.d/ directory (or modify the line to have the required value):

net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0

Issue the following command to make the changes take effect:

# sysctl --system