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The Photon operating system must enable symlink access control protection in the kernel.

Overview

Finding IDVersionRule IDIA ControlsSeverity
V-258841PHTN-40-000105SV-258841r958726_ruleCCI-002235high
Description
By enabling the fs.protected_symlinks kernel parameter, symbolic links are permitted to be followed only when outside a sticky world-writable directory, or when the UID of the link and follower match, or when the directory owner matches the symlink's owner. Disallowing such symlinks helps mitigate vulnerabilities based on insecure file system accessed by privileged programs, avoiding an exploitation vector exploiting unsafe use of open() or creat().
STIGDate
VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide2026-06-02

Related Frameworks

1 mapping across 4 frameworks
SCF0 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 3 hops (1) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

IAC-21.5Prohibit Non-Privileged Users from Executing Privileged Functions
1.00
NIST 800-530 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 2 hops (50) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

AC-2(1)Automated System Account Management
1.00
AC-2(10)Shared and Group Account Credential Change
1.00
AC-2(2)Automated Temporary and Emergency Account Management
1.00
AC-2(3)Disable Accounts
1.00
AC-2(4)Automated Audit Actions
1.00
AC-3Access Enforcement
1.00
AC-3(4)Discretionary Access Control
1.00
AC-3(7)Role-based Access Control
1.00
AC-4Information Flow Enforcement
1.00
AC-6(10)Prohibit Non-privileged Users from Executing Privileged Functions
1.00

+40 more (top 10 by confidence shown)

NIST 800-1710 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 3 hops (1) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

3.1.7
1.00
CCI1 mapping
CCI-002235
1.00

Details

Check Text (C-258841r958726_chk)

At the command line, run the following command to verify symlink protection is enabled: # /sbin/sysctl fs.protected_symlinks Example result: fs.protected_symlinks = 1 If the "fs.protected_symlinks" kernel parameter is not set to "1", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-62490r933583_fix)

Navigate to and open: /etc/sysctl.d/zz-stig-hardening.conf Add or update the following line: fs.protected_symlinks = 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.