RHEL 9 must enable mitigations against processor-based vulnerabilities.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| low | V-257795 | SRG-OS-000433-GPOS-00193 | RHEL-09-212050 | SV-257795r1044845_rule | 2026-02-05 | 2 |
Description
Kernel page-table isolation is a kernel feature that mitigates the Meltdown security vulnerability and hardens the kernel against attempts to bypass kernel address space layout randomization (KASLR).
Satisfies: SRG-OS-000433-GPOS-00193, SRG-OS-000095-GPOS-00049
ℹ️ Check
Verify RHEL 9 enables kernel page-table isolation with the following command:
$ sudo grubby --info=ALL | grep args | grep -v 'pti=on'
If any output is returned, this is a finding.
Check that kernel page-table isolation is enabled by default to persist in kernel updates:
$ grep pti /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="pti=on"
If "pti" is not set to "on", is missing or commented out, this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Configure RHEL 9 to enable kernel page-table isolation with the following command:
$ sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args="pti=on"
Add or modify the following line in "/etc/default/grub" to ensure the configuration survives kernel updates:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="pti=on"