Disable systemd-journal-remote Socket

Description

Journald supports the ability to receive messages from remote hosts, thus acting as a log server. Clients should not receive data from other hosts. NOTE: The same package, systemd-journal-remote , is used for both sending logs to remote hosts and receiving incoming logs. With regards to receiving logs, there are two Systemd unit files; systemd-journal-remote.socket and systemd-journal-remote.service.

Rationale

If a client is configured to also receive data, thus turning it into a server, the client system is acting outside it’s operational boundary.

Remediation

Shell script

The following script can be run on the host to remediate the issue.

#!/bin/bash

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if [ ! -f /.dockerenv ] && [ ! -f /run/.containerenv ]; then

SOCKET_NAME="systemd-journal-remote.socket"
SYSTEMCTL_EXEC='/usr/bin/systemctl'

if "$SYSTEMCTL_EXEC" -q list-unit-files --type socket | grep -q "$SOCKET_NAME"; then
    "$SYSTEMCTL_EXEC" stop "$SOCKET_NAME"
    "$SYSTEMCTL_EXEC" mask "$SOCKET_NAME"
fi

else
    >&2 echo 'Remediation is not applicable, nothing was done'
fi

Ansible playbook

The following playbook can be run with Ansible to remediate the issue.

- name: Disable systemd-journal-remote Socket - Collect systemd Socket Units Present
    in the System
  ansible.builtin.command:
    cmd: systemctl -q list-unit-files --type socket
  register: result_systemd_unit_files
  changed_when: false
  when: ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  tags:
  - disable_strategy
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - socket_systemd-journal-remote_disabled

- name: Disable systemd-journal-remote Socket - Ensure systemd-journal-remote.socket
    is Masked
  ansible.builtin.systemd:
    name: systemd-journal-remote.socket
    state: stopped
    enabled: false
    masked: true
  when:
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  - result_systemd_unit_files.stdout_lines is search("systemd-journal-remote.socket")
  tags:
  - disable_strategy
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - socket_systemd-journal-remote_disabled