The Photon operating system must not forward IPv4 or IPv6 source-routed packets.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-258886	PHTN-40-000223	SV-258886r933719_rule		Medium

Description

Source routing is an Internet Protocol mechanism that allows an IP packet to carry information, a list of addresses, that tells a router the path the packet must take. There is also an option to record the hops as the route is traversed. The list of hops taken, the "route record", provides the destination with a return path to the source. This allows the source (the sending host) to specify the route, loosely or strictly, ignoring the routing tables of some or all of the routers. It can allow a user to redirect network traffic for malicious purposes and should therefore be disabled.

STIG	Date
VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-10-29

Details

Check Text ( C-62626r933717_chk )

At the command line, run the following command to verify source-routed packets are not forwarded: # /sbin/sysctl -a --pattern "net.ipv[4|6].conf.(all|default).accept_source_route" Expected result: net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0 net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0 net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0 net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0 If the "accept_source_route" kernel parameters are not set to "0", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-62535r933718_fix)

Navigate to and open: /etc/sysctl.d/zz-stig-hardening.conf Add or update the following lines: net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0 net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0 net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0 net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0 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.