The system must log Martian packets.

From Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000366

SV-50329r2_rule The system must log Martian packets.

Vulnerability discussion

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.

Check content

The status of the "net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians" kernel parameter can be queried by running the following command: $ sysctl net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians The output of the command should indicate a value of "1". If this value is not the default value, investigate how it could have been adjusted at runtime, and verify it is not set improperly in "/etc/sysctl.conf". $ grep net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians /etc/sysctl.conf If the correct value is not returned, this is a finding.

Fix text

To set the runtime status of the "net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians" kernel parameter, run the following command: # sysctl -w net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians=1 If this is not the system's default value, add the following line to "/etc/sysctl.conf": net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1

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