De acordo com este post intitulado: tudo vs. padrão em / proc / sys / net / ipv4 / conf [mensagem # 3139] :
When you change variables in the /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/all directory, the variable for all interfaces and default will be changed as well. When you change variables in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/default, all future interfaces will have the value you specify. This should only affect machines that can add interfaces at run time, such as laptops with PCMCIA cards, or machines that create new interfaces via VPNs or PPP, for example.