Title

RHEL 8 must disable the transparent inter-process communication (TIPC) protocol. (Cat III impact)

Discussion

It is detrimental for operating systems to provide, or install by default, functionality exceeding requirements or mission objectives. These unnecessary capabilities or services are often overlooked and therefore may remain unsecured. They increase the risk to the platform by providing additional attack vectors. Failing to disconnect unused protocols can result in a system compromise. The Transparent Inter-Process Communication (TIPC) protocol is designed to provide communications between nodes in a cluster. Disabling TIPC protects the system against exploitation of any flaws in its implementation.

Check Content

Verify the operating system disables the ability to load the TIPC protocol kernel module and ensure that TIPC is disabled with the following command: $ sudo grep -r tipc /etc/modprobe.d/* | grep "blacklist" /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:install tipc /bin/false /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:blacklist tipc If the command does not return any output, or the line is commented out, and use of the TIPC protocol is not documented with the Information System Security Officer (ISSO) as an operational requirement, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the operating system to disable the ability to use the TIPC protocol kernel module. Add or update the following lines in the file "/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf": install tipc /bin/false blacklist tipc Reboot the system for the settings to take effect.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-230497r1069313_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-230497

Group Title: SRG-OS-000095-GPOS-00049

Expert Comments

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