1.1.22 Disable Automounting

Information

autofs allows automatic mounting of devices, typically including CD/DVDs and USB drives.

Rationale:

With automounting enabled anyone with physical access could attach a USB drive or disc
and have its contents available in system even if they lacked permissions to mount it
themselves.

Solution

Run one of the following commands to disable autofs :

# chkconfig autofs off

# systemctl disable autofs

# update-rc.d autofs disable



Impact:

The use of portable hard drives is very common for workstation users. If your organization
allows the use of portable storage or media on workstations and physical access controls to
workstations is considered adequate there is little value add in turning off automounting.

Notes:

Additional methods of disabling a service exist. Consult your distribution documentation
for appropriate methods.

This control should align with the tolerance of the use of portable drives and optical media
in the organization. On a server requiring an admin to manually mount media can be part
of defense-in-depth to reduce the risk of unapproved software or information being
introduced or proprietary software or information being exfiltrated. If admins commonly
use flash drives and Server access has sufficient physical controls, requiring manual
mounting may not increase security.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/2420

Item Details

Category: SYSTEM AND INFORMATION INTEGRITY

References: 800-53|SI-3, CSCv6|8.3, CSCv7|8.4, CSCv7|8.5

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: d32f72a2a50f9f2daf1e51dd96731e1761c46eca2b6ef5d6e862f17248bea87f