STIGUI
V-274004CAT II — Medium severitySV-274004r1198253_rule

Amazon Linux 2023 must disable access to network bpf system call from nonprivileged processes.

Rule version AZLX-23-000215 · STIG v1 · 2026-08-20

Discussion

Loading and accessing the packet filters programs and maps using the bpf() system call has the potential of revealing sensitive information about the kernel state.

Check

Verify Amazon Linux 2023 prevents privilege escalation through the kernel by disabling access to the bpf system call with the following commands:

$ sudo sysctl kernel.unprivileged_bpf_disabled kernel.unprivileged_bpf_disabled = 1

If the returned line does not have a value of "1", or a line is not returned, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure Amazon Linux 2023 to prevent privilege escalation through the kernel by disabling access to the bpf syscall by adding the following line to a file, in the "/etc/sysctl.d" directory:

kernel.unprivileged_bpf_disabled = 1

The system configuration files must be reloaded for the changes to take effect. To reload the contents of the files, run the following command:

$ sudo sysctl --system

Identifiers

Group ID
V-274004
Group title
SRG-OS-000132-GPOS-00067
Rule ID
SV-274004r1198253_rule
Check ID
C-78095r1119998_chk
Fix ID
F-78000r1119999_fix