The system's local firewall must implement a deny-all, allow-by-exception policy for forwarded packets.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
RHEL-06-000320	RHEL-06-000320	RHEL-06-000320_rule		Medium

Description
In "iptables" the default policy is applied only after all the applicable rules in the table are examined for a match. Setting the default policy to "DROP" implements proper design for a firewall, i.e. any packets which are not explicitly permitted should not be accepted.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2013-02-05

Details

Check Text ( C-RHEL-06-000320_chk )
Run the following command to ensure the default "FORWARD" policy is "DROP": grep ":FORWARD" /etc/sysconfig/iptables The output should be similar to the following: # grep ":FORWARD" /etc/sysconfig/iptables :FORWARD DROP [0:0

Fix Text (F-RHEL-06-000320_fix)
To set the default policy to DROP (instead of ACCEPT) for the built-in FORWARD chain which processes packets that will be forwarded from one interface to another, add or correct the following line in "/etc/sysconfig/iptables": :FORWARD DROP [0:0]