GEN003540 - The system must implement non-executable program stacks.

Information

A common type of exploit is the stack buffer overflow. An application receives, from an attacker, more data than it is prepared for and stores this information on its stack, writing beyond the space reserved for it. This can be designed to cause execution of the data written on the stack. One mechanism to mitigate this vulnerability is for the system to not allow the execution of instructions in sections of memory identified as part of the stack.

Solution

Change the sed_config setting to disable stack execution for all processes.
# chdev -l sys0 -a sed_config=all
To assess the impact of updating sed_config, the 'all+monitor' setting may be used temporarily. This temporary update does not mitigate the finding.
Reboot the system for the new setting to take effect.

See Also

http://iasecontent.disa.mil/stigs/zip/U_STIG_Library_2015_07.zip

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6b., CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000366, Rule-ID|SV-39504r1_rule, STIG-ID|GEN003540, Vuln-ID|V-11999

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 00a2a414ecb6958612d5304a94118f678a4a243fd3563d3852e4718381c762e7