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2.2.9 Ensure tftp server services are not in use

Information

Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is a simple protocol for exchanging files between two TCP/IP machines. TFTP servers allow connections from a TFTP Client for sending and receiving files.

Unless there is a need to run the system as a TFTP server, it is recommended that the service is disabled to reduce the potential attack surface.

TFTP does not have built-in encryption, access control or authentication. This makes it very easy for an attacker to exploit TFTP to gain access to files.

FreeBSD ships with a tftpd in the base system which is served through inetd and is disabled by default.

Solution

Run the following commands to stop and disable tftp :

# sed -i '' -e 's|^tftp|#tftp|g' /etc/inetd.conf
# service inetd restart

Impact:

TFTP is often used to provide files for network booting such as for PXE based installation of servers.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/19044

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6, 800-53|CM-7, CSCv7|9.2

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 6a0d481aeaed870e34c3532980f35d1b0d697248c482eb855cf80aacbf6bc63f