The Photon operating system must not perform IPv4 packet forwarding.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-258893	PHTN-40-000231	SV-258893r933740_rule		Medium

Description
Routing protocol daemons are typically used on routers to exchange network topology information with other routers. If this software is used when not required, system network information may be unnecessarily transmitted across the network.

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

Details

Check Text ( C-62633r933738_chk )
If IP forwarding is required, for example if Kubernetes is installed, this is Not Applicable. At the command line, run the following command to verify packet forwarding it disabled: # /sbin/sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward Expected result: net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0 If the "net.ipv4.ip_forward" kernel parameter is not set to "0", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-62542r933739_fix)
Navigate to and open: /etc/sysctl.d/zz-stig-hardening.conf Add or update the following line: net.ipv4.ip_forward = 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.