Nutanix AOS must implement nonexecutable data to protect its memory from unauthorized code execution.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-254234	NUTX-OS-001580	SV-254234r846790_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-57719r846788_chk )
Nutanix AOS is configured to implement nonexecutable data to protect its memory from unauthorized code execution. $ sudo grep flags /proc/cpuinfo \| grep -w nx flags. : fpu vme de …. nx pdpe1gb rdtscp... If "flags" does not contain the "nx" flag, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-57670r846789_fix)
If Nutanix AOS does not list 'nx' flag in the /proc/cpuinfo and the system's BIOS setup configuration permits toggling the No Execution bit, then set it to "enable".