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V-254235

CAT II (Medium)

Nutanix AOS must implement address space layout randomization to protect its memory from unauthorized code execution.

Rule ID

SV-254235r958928_rule

STIG

Nutanix AOS 5.20.x OS Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R2

CCIs

CCI-002824

Discussion

Some adversaries launch attacks with the intent of executing code in nonexecutable regions of memory or in memory locations that are prohibited. Security safeguards employed to protect memory include, for example, data execution prevention and address space layout randomization. Data execution prevention safeguards can either be hardware-enforced or software-enforced with hardware providing the greater strength of mechanism. Examples of attacks are buffer overflow attacks.

Check Content

Confirm Nutanix AOS is configured to implement address space layout randomization.

$ sudo sysctl kernel.randomize_va_space
kernel.randomize_va_space = 2

If the value of kernel.randomize_va_space is anything other than "2", this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure Nutanix AOS to implement address space layout randomization by running the following command:

$ sudo sysctl kernel.randomize_va_space=2