The xinetd service must be disabled if no network services utilizing it are enabled.

From Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000382

SV-50383r2_rule The xinetd service must be disabled if no network services utilizing it are enabled.

Vulnerability discussion

The xinetd service provides a dedicated listener service for some programs, which is no longer necessary for commonly-used network services. Disabling it ensures that these uncommon services are not running, and also prevents attacks against xinetd itself.

Check content

If network services are using the xinetd service, this is not applicable. To check that the "xinetd" service is disabled in system boot configuration, run the following command: # chkconfig "xinetd" --list Output should indicate the "xinetd" service has either not been installed, or has been disabled at all runlevels, as shown in the example below: # chkconfig "xinetd" --list "xinetd" 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off Run the following command to verify "xinetd" is disabled through current runtime configuration: # service xinetd status If the service is disabled the command will return the following output: xinetd is stopped If the service is running, this is a finding.

Fix text

The "xinetd" service can be disabled with the following commands: # chkconfig xinetd off # service xinetd stop

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