OL 8 must prevent IPv6 Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) redirect messages from being accepted.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-248876	SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227	OL08-00-040210	SV-248876r1156628_rule	2025-12-08	2

Description
ICMP redirect messages are used by routers to inform hosts that a more direct route exists for a particular destination. These messages modify the host's route table and are unauthenticated. An illicit ICMP redirect message could result in a man-in-the-middle attack. The sysctl --system command will load settings from all system configuration files. All configuration files are sorted by their filename in lexicographical order, regardless of the directories in which they reside. If multiple files specify the same option, the entry in the file with the lexicographically latest name will take precedence. Files are read from directories in the following list from top to bottom. Once a file of a given filename is loaded, any file of the same name in subsequent directories is ignored. /etc/sysctl.d/.conf /run/sysctl.d/.conf /usr/local/lib/sysctl.d/.conf /usr/lib/sysctl.d/.conf /lib/sysctl.d/*.conf /etc/sysctl.conf

Description

ICMP redirect messages are used by routers to inform hosts that a more direct route exists for a particular destination. These messages modify the host's route table and are unauthenticated. An illicit ICMP redirect message could result in a man-in-the-middle attack. The sysctl --system command will load settings from all system configuration files. All configuration files are sorted by their filename in lexicographical order, regardless of the directories in which they reside. If multiple files specify the same option, the entry in the file with the lexicographically latest name will take precedence. Files are read from directories in the following list from top to bottom. Once a file of a given filename is loaded, any file of the same name in subsequent directories is ignored. /etc/sysctl.d/*.conf /run/sysctl.d/*.conf /usr/local/lib/sysctl.d/*.conf /usr/lib/sysctl.d/*.conf /lib/sysctl.d/*.conf /etc/sysctl.conf

ℹ️ Check
Note: If IPv6 is disabled on the system, this requirement is Not Applicable. Verify OL 8 will not accept IPv6 ICMP redirect messages. Check the value of the default "accept_redirects" variables with the following command: $ sysctl net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_redirects net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_redirects = 0 If the returned line does not have a value of "0", a line is not returned, or the line is commented out, this is a finding.

ℹ️ Check

Note: If IPv6 is disabled on the system, this requirement is Not Applicable. Verify OL 8 will not accept IPv6 ICMP redirect messages. Check the value of the default "accept_redirects" variables with the following command: $ sysctl net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_redirects net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_redirects = 0 If the returned line does not have a value of "0", a line is not returned, or the line is commented out, this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
Configure OL 8 to prevent IPv6 ICMP redirect messages from being accepted. Add or edit the following line in a single system configuration file in the "/etc/sysctl.d/" directory: net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_redirects = 0 Load settings from all system configuration files with the following command: $ sudo sysctl --system