ansible-hardening/doc/metadata/rhel7/RHEL-07-040250.rst

---id: RHEL-07-040250 status: opt-in tag: misc ---

Although the STIG requires that incoming TCP connections are rate limited with firewalld, this setting can cause problems with certain applications which handle large amounts of TCP connections. Therefore, the tasks in the security role do not apply the rate limit by default.

Deployers can opt in for this change by setting the following Ansible variable:

security_enable_firewalld_rate_limit: yes

The STIG recommends a limit of 25 connection per minute and allowing bursts up to 100 connections. Both of these options are adjustable with the following Ansible variables:

security_enable_firewalld_rate_limit_per_minute: 25
security_enable_firewalld_rate_limit_burst: 100

Warning

Deployers should test rate limiting in a non-production environment first before applying it to production systems. Ensure that the application running on the system is receiving a large volume of requests so that the rule can be thoroughly tested.