7.2.3 Ensure syslog is not configured to receive logs from a remote client

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Information

This recommendation prevents the local syslogd daemon from accepting messages from other hosts on the network.

Apart from a central syslog server, all other hosts should not accept remote syslog messages. By default the syslogd daemon accepts all remote syslog messages as no authentication is required. This means that a hacker could flood a server with syslog messages and potentially fill up the /var filesystem.

Solution

If the server does not act as a central syslog server, suppress the logging of messages originating from remote servers:

chssys -s syslogd -a "-r"

Re-cycle syslogd to activate the configuration change:

stopsrc -s syslogd
startsrc -s syslogd

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/10385