The Photon operating system must log IPv4 packets with impossible addresses.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-258891	PHTN-40-000228	SV-258891r933734_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
VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-10-29

Details

Check Text ( C-62631r933732_chk )
At the command line, run the following command to verify martian packets are logged: # /sbin/sysctl -a --pattern "net.ipv4.conf.(all|default).log_martians" Expected result: net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1 net.ipv4.conf.default.log_martians = 1 If the "log_martians" kernel parameters are not set to "1", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-62540r933733_fix)
Navigate to and open: /etc/sysctl.d/zz-stig-hardening.conf Add or update the following lines: net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1 net.ipv4.conf.default.log_martians = 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.