UBTU-16-030140 - The Ubuntu operating system must implement address space layout randomization to protect its memory from unauthorized code execution.

Information

Some adversaries launch attacks with the intent of executing code in non-executable 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.

Solution

Configure the operating system implement virtual address space randomization.

Set the system to the required kernel parameter by adding the following line to '/etc/sysctl.conf' (or modify the line to have the required value):

kernel.randomize_va_space=2

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_CAN_Ubuntu_16-04_LTS_V2R3_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: SYSTEM AND INFORMATION INTEGRITY

References: 800-53|SI-16, CAT|II, CCI|CCI-002824, Rule-ID|SV-215120r610931_rule, STIG-ID|UBTU-16-030140, STIG-Legacy|SV-90501, STIG-Legacy|V-75821, Vuln-ID|V-215120

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: c001315e66a3677f08f6148324e0add53c6f8054764654dff457b4f54fbba8d3