Profile Applicability:
 • Level 1

Description:
 SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) services provide network management and monitoring capabilities. If SNMP is not required, disabling these services reduces the risk of unauthorized access and network reconnaissance.

Rationale:
 Disabling unused SNMP services limits network exposure and reduces the attack surface associated with network management protocols.

Impact:
 Pros:

  • Reduces risk of information leakage and unauthorized network monitoring.

  • Limits unnecessary network services running on the system.

Cons:

  • Disabling SNMP may affect legitimate network monitoring if in use.

Default Value:
 SNMP services may be enabled or running by default on some systems.

Pre-requisites:

  • Root or sudo privileges to manage system services.

Remediation:

Test Plan:

Using Linux command line:

1. Check if SNMP service is enabled:

systemctl is-enabled snmpd

2. Check if SNMP service is running:

systemctl status snmpd

Implementation Plan:

Using Linux command line:

1. Disable SNMP service:

systemctl disable snmpd

2. Stop running SNMP service:

systemctl stop snmpd

3. Verify service is disabled and stopped:

systemctl is-enabled snmpd  
systemctl status snmpd

Backout Plan:

Using Linux command line:

1. Enable and start SNMP service if required:

systemctl enable snmpd  
systemctl start snmpd

2. Verify service status.

References:

  • CIS Amazon Linux 2 Benchmark v3.0.0

  • Systemd Service Management