Information
Setting net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts to 1 will cause the system to ignore all ICMP echo and timestamp requests to broadcast and multicast addresses.
Rationale:
Accepting ICMP echo and timestamp requests with broadcast or multicast destinations for your network could be used to trick your host into starting (or participating) in a Smurf attack. A Smurf attack relies on an attacker sending large amounts of ICMP broadcast messages with a spoofed source address. All hosts receiving this message and responding would send echo-reply messages back to the spoofed address, which is probably not routable. If many hosts respond to the packets, the amount of traffic on the network could be significantly multiplied.
Solution
Set the following parameters in /etc/sysctl.conf or a /etc/sysctl.d/* file:
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1
Run the following commands to set the active kernel parameters:
# sysctl -w net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts=1
# sysctl -w net.ipv4.route.flush=1
Notes:
This Benchmark recommendation maps to:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide:
Version 2, Release: 3 Benchmark Date: 26 Apr 2019
Vul ID: V-72287
Rule ID: SV-86911r2_rule
STIG ID: RHEL-07-040630
Severity: CAT II