6.2 Ensure Avahi Server is not enabled

Information

Avahi is a free zeroconf implementation, including a system for multicast DNS/DNS-SD
service discovery. Avahi allows programs to publish and discover services and hosts
running on a local network with no specific configuration. For example, a user can plug a
computer into a network and Avahi automatically finds printers to print to, files to look at
and people to talk to, as well as network services running on the machine.

*Rationale*

Since servers are not normally used for printing, this service is not needed unless
dependencies require it. If this is the case, disable the service to reduce the potential attack
surface.

Solution

Remove or comment out start lines in /etc/init/avahi-daemon.conf-#start on (filesystem
# and started dbus)

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/91

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-7b., CSCv6|9.1

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 04d844b20681fb2b5cff2e667fe1d22028ace4034efb7ec6b24678f3b7dfc6a9