4.1.2 Disable Send Packet Redirects - net.ipv4.conf.send_redirects = 0

Information

ICMP Redirects are used to send routing information to other hosts. As a host itself does not act as a router (in a host only configuration), there is no need to send redirects.

Rationale:

An attacker could use a compromised host to send invalid ICMP redirects to other router devices in an attempt to corrupt routing and have users access a system set up by the attacker as opposed to a valid system.

Solution

Set the net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects and net.ipv4.conf.default.send_redirects parameters to 0 in /etc/sysctl.conf:

net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.send_redirects = 0

Run the following commands to set the active kernel parameters:

# sysctl -w net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects=0
# sysctl -w net.ipv4.conf.default.send_redirects=0
# sysctl -w net.ipv4.route.flush=1

Default Value:

OS Default: N/A

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/3096

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-7b., CSCv6|9.2, CSCv7|9.2

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: dbb1471bdd0fb855c3e64bd51b4d58c1e8f204b048e18b926501934e9bc171bf