SV-218054r603264: Process core dumps must be disabled unless needed. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

Process core dumps must be disabled unless needed.

Description

Discussion Text

A core dump includes a memory image taken at the time the operating system terminates an application. The memory image could contain sensitive data and is generally useful only for developers trying to debug problems.

How this relates to the STIG checklist: STIG vs SCAP benchmark.

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000366CCE-27033-0V-38675SV-50476

References

DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 4046

Checks

DISA STIG (Manual Reference)

To verify that core dumps are disabled for all users, run the following command:

$ grep core /etc/security/limits.conf /etc/security/limits.d/*.conf

The output should be:

* hard core 0

If it is not, this is a finding.

SCC Automation Reference

The reconstructed evaluation script behind this rule's OVAL check(s) — every module a compound check combines, with this rule's own concrete values and DISA's SCC tool's real per-module mechanism curated from static teardown of SCC releases.

#!/bin/bash
# Reconstructed from oval:mil.disa.fso.redhat.rhel6:def:3072
# Process core dumps must be disabled unless needed.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# Are core dumps disabled
# textfilecontent54_object (textfilecontent54_test)
test_1() {
  ( (sed -En 's/^[\s]*\*[\s]+(?:(?:hard)|(?:-))[\s]+core[\s]+([^#\s]+)\s*(?:#.*)?$/\1/p' '/etc/security/limits.conf') | grep -qxF '0' ) || ( (grep -rhP --include='*.conf' '^[\s]*\*[\s]+(?:(?:hard)|(?:-))[\s]+core[\s]+([^#\s]+)\s*(?:#.*)?$' '/etc/security/limits.d' | sed -En 's/^[\s]*\*[\s]+(?:(?:hard)|(?:-))[\s]+core[\s]+([^#\s]+)\s*(?:#.*)?$/\1/p') | grep -qxF '0' )
}

if test_1; then
  echo "PASS"
else
  echo "FAIL"
fi

Assessment Script Powered by AISandbox-executed

A standalone Shell script to assess this control automatically. Review before running it in your environment.

Syntax-checked and actually executed in an isolated sandbox (not the real system this checks) — confirmed to run without errors.

#!/bin/sh
# OVAL Definition: oval:mil.disa.fso.redhat.rhel6:def:3072
if grep -qE '^[\s]*\*[\s]+hard[\s]+core[\s]+0[\s]*$' /etc/security/limits.conf; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi; echo "FAIL"; exit 1

Remediation

To disable core dumps for all users, add the following line to "/etc/security/limits.conf": 

* hard core 0