cis-gcp-cos-3-2-5

name	cis-gcp-cos-3.2.5
description	Ensure broadcast ICMP requests are ignored
category	cis-gcp-cos
version	1.2.0
author	cyberstrike-official
tags	["cis","gcp","container-optimized-os","network","sysctl","icmp"]
cis_id	3.2.5
cis_benchmark	CIS Google Container-Optimized OS Benchmark v1.2.0
tech_stack	["gcp","linux"]
cwe_ids	[]
chains_with	[]
prerequisites	[]
severity_boost	{}

3.2.5 Ensure broadcast ICMP requests are ignored (Automated)

Description

Setting net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts to 1 will cause the system to ignore all ICMP echo and timestamp requests to broadcast and multicast addresses.

Rationale

Accepting ICMP echo and timestamp requests with broadcast or multicast destinations for your network could be used to trick your host into starting (or participating) in a Smurf attack. A Smurf attack relies on an attacker sending large amounts of ICMP broadcast messages with a spoofed source address. All hosts receiving this message and responding would send echo-reply messages back to the spoofed address, which is probably not routable. If many hosts respond to the packets, the amount of traffic on the network could be significantly multiplied.

Audit Procedure

Run the following commands and verify output matches:

# sysctl net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1
# grep "net\.ipv4\.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts" /etc/sysctl.conf /etc/sysctl.d/*
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1

Expected Result

The sysctl command should return a value of 1 and the grep command should confirm the setting is persisted in the sysctl configuration files.

Remediation

Set the following parameters in /etc/sysctl.conf or a /etc/sysctl.d/* file:

net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1

Run the following commands to set the active kernel parameters:

# sysctl -w net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts=1
# sysctl -w net.ipv4.route.flush=1

/etc is stateless on Container-Optimized OS. Therefore, /etc cannot be used to make these changes persistent across reboots. The steps mentioned above needs to be performed after every boot.

CIS Controls

Controls Version	Control	IG 1	IG 2	IG 3
v8	12.2 Establish and Maintain a Secure Network Architecture - Establish and maintain a secure network architecture. A secure network architecture must address segmentation, least privilege, and availability, at a minimum.		X	X