RHEL 10 must restrict exposed kernel pointer address access.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-281308 | SRG-OS-000132-GPOS-00067 | RHEL-10-701060 | SV-281308r1167074_rule | 2026-03-11 | 1 |
Description
Exposing kernel pointers (through procfs or "seq_printf()") exposes kernel writable structures, which may contain functions pointers. If a write vulnerability occurs in the kernel, allowing write access to any of this structure, the kernel can be compromised. This option disallows any program without the CAP_SYSLOG capability to get the addresses of kernel pointers by replacing them with "0".
Satisfies: SRG-OS-000132-GPOS-00067, SRG-OS-000433-GPOS-00192
ℹ️ Check
Verify RHEL 10 is configured to restrict exposed kernel pointer address access.
Verify the runtime status of the "kernel.kptr_restrict" kernel parameter with the following command:
$ sudo sysctl kernel.kptr_restrict
kernel.kptr_restrict = 1
If "kernel.kptr_restrict" is not set to "1" or is missing, this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Configure RHEL 10 to restrict exposed kernel pointer address access.
Create a drop-in if it does not already exist:
$ sudo vi /etc/sysctl.d/99-kernel_kptr_restrict.conf
Add the following to the file:
kernel.kptr_restrict = 1
Reload settings from all system configuration files with the following command:
$ sudo sysctl --system