STIGUI
V-271883CAT II — Medium severitySV-271883r1092361_rule

OL 9 must not forward IPv6 source-routed packets by default.

Rule version OL09-00-006046 · STIG v1 · 2026-08-21

Discussion

Source-routed packets allow the source of the packet to suggest that routers forward the packet along a different path than configured on the router, which can be used to bypass network security measures. This requirement applies only to the forwarding of source-routed traffic, such as when forwarding is enabled and the system is functioning as a router.

Accepting source-routed packets in the IPv6 protocol has few legitimate uses. It must be disabled unless it is absolutely required.

Check

Note: If IPv6 is disabled on the system, this requirement is Not Applicable.

Verify that OL 9 does not accept IPv6 source-routed packets by default.

Check the value of the accept source route variable with the following command:

$ sysctl net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_source_route net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_source_route = 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 9 to not forward IPv6 source-routed packets by default.

Add or edit the following line in a single system configuration file in the "/etc/sysctl.d/" directory:

net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0

Load settings from all system configuration files with the following command:

$ sudo sysctl --system

Identifiers

Group ID
V-271883
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-271883r1092361_rule
Check ID
C-75933r1092359_chk
Fix ID
F-75840r1092360_fix