Sysctl.conf hardening
The purpose of syctl hardening is to help prevent spoofing and dos attacks. This short guide will show what I have found to be a good configuration for the sysctl.conf configuration file. The most important of the variables listed below is the enabling of syn cookie protection. Only place the bottom two if you do not want your server to respond to ICMP echo, commonly referred to as ICMP ping or just ping requests.
Open /etc/sysctl.conf for editing in your favorite text editor:
pico -w /etc/sysctl.conf
And simply copy/paste this into the file replacing any existing values:
#Kernel sysctl configuration file for Red Hat Linux # # For binary values, 0 is disabled, 1 is enabled. See sysctl(8) and # sysctl.conf(5) for more details. # Disables packet forwarding net.ipv4.ip_forward=0 # Disables IP source routing net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0 net.ipv4.conf.lo.accept_source_route = 0 net.ipv4.conf.eth0.accept_source_route = 0 net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0 # Enable IP spoofing protection, turn on source route verification net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1 net.ipv4.conf.lo.rp_filter = 1 net.ipv4.conf.eth0.rp_filter = 1 net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1 # Disable ICMP Redirect Acceptance net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0 net.ipv4.conf.lo.accept_redirects = 0 net.ipv4.conf.eth0.accept_redirects = 0 net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_redirects = 0 # Enable Log Spoofed Packets, Source Routed Packets, Redirect Packets net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 0 net.ipv4.conf.lo.log_martians = 0 net.ipv4.conf.eth0.log_martians = 0 # Disables IP source routing net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0 net.ipv4.conf.lo.accept_source_route = 0 net.ipv4.conf.eth0.accept_source_route = 0 net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0 # Enable IP spoofing protection, turn on source route verification net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1 net.ipv4.conf.lo.rp_filter = 1 net.ipv4.conf.eth0.rp_filter = 1 net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1 # Disable ICMP Redirect Acceptance net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0 net.ipv4.conf.lo.accept_redirects = 0 net.ipv4.conf.eth0.accept_redirects = 0 net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_redirects = 0 # Disables the magic-sysrq key kernel.sysrq = 0 # Decrease the time default value for tcp_fin_timeout connection net.ipv4.tcp_fin_timeout = 15 # Decrease the time default value for tcp_keepalive_time connection net.ipv4.tcp_keepalive_time = 1800 # Turn off the tcp_window_scaling net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling = 0 # Turn off the tcp_sack net.ipv4.tcp_sack = 0 # Turn off the tcp_timestamps net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps = 0 # Enable TCP SYN Cookie Protection net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1 # Enable ignoring broadcasts request net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1 # Enable bad error message Protection net.ipv4.icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses = 1 # Log Spoofed Packets, Source Routed Packets, Redirect Packets net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1 # Increases the size of the socket queue (effectively, q0). net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 1024 # Increase the tcp-time-wait buckets pool size net.ipv4.tcp_max_tw_buckets = 1440000 # Allowed local port range net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 16384 65536
After you make the changes to the file you need to run
/sbin/sysctl -p
and
sysctl -w net.ipv4.route.flush=1
to enable the changes without a reboot.
Notes
– Make sure that eth0 is your primary interface. If it is not replace eth0 with eth1 in the code below.
– Make sure you have backup of your original syctl.conf file before making any changes
– These settings might be old (outdated) or wrong for your system setup. Use them at your own risk!