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

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-254235	NUTX-OS-001590	SV-254235r846793_rule		Medium

Description
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.

Description

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.

STIG	Date
Nutanix AOS 5.20.x OS Security Technical Implementation Guide	2022-08-24

Details

Check Text ( C-57720r846791_chk )
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 (F-57671r846792_fix)
Configure Nutanix AOS to implement address space layout randomization by running the following command: $ sudo sysctl kernel.randomize_va_space=2