SOL-11.1-080020 - 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

The root role is required.

Determine the OS version you are currently securing.

# uname -v

If the OS version is 11.3 or newer, enable non-executable program stacks using the 'sxadm' command.

# pfexec sxadm enable nxstack

For Solaris 11, 11.1, and 11.2, this action applies to the global zone only and the '/etc/system' file is updated. Determine the zone that you are currently securing.

# zonename

If the command output is 'global', modify the '/etc/system' file.

# pfedit /etc/system

add the line:

set noexec_user_stack=1

Solaris 11, 11.1, and 11.2 systems will need to be restarted for the setting to take effect.

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_SOL_11_x86_V3R1_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6b., CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000366, Rule-ID|SV-216206r959010_rule, STIG-ID|SOL-11.1-080020, STIG-Legacy|SV-60897, STIG-Legacy|V-48025, Vuln-ID|V-216206

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 5dd82b00dd410113dfe3b678c16d3f97cb6098ff4568104555175295b9e8050b