DISA STIGS Viewer

OL 9 must restrict usage of ptrace to descendant processes.

Overview

Finding ID Version Rule ID IA Controls Severity
V-271749 OL09-00-002410 SV-271749r1091959_rule   Medium
Description
Unrestricted usage of ptrace allows compromised binaries to run ptrace on other processes of the user. Like this, the attacker can steal sensitive information from the target processes (e.g., SSH sessions, web browser, etc.) without any additional assistance from the user (i.e., without resorting to phishing).
STIG Date
Oracle Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide 2025-05-08

Details

Check Text (C-75799r1091957_chk)
Verify that OL 9 restricts usage of ptrace to descendant processes with the following commands:

$ sysctl kernel.yama.ptrace_scope
kernel.yama.ptrace_scope = 1

If the returned line does not have a value of "1", or a line is not returned, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-75706r1091958_fix)
Configure OL 9 to restrict usage of ptrace to descendant processes by adding the following line to "/etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf":

kernel.yama.ptrace_scope = 1

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

$ sudo sysctl --system