The system must implement virtual address space randomization.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-38596	RHEL-06-000078	SV-50397r2_rule		Medium

Description
Address space layout randomization (ASLR) makes it more difficult for an attacker to predict the location of attack code he or she has introduced into a process's address space during an attempt at exploitation. Additionally, ASLR also makes it more difficult for an attacker to know the location of existing code in order to repurpose it using return oriented programming (ROP) techniques.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2015-03-06

Details

Check Text ( C-46153r2_chk )
The status of the "kernel.randomize_va_space" kernel parameter can be queried by running the following commands: $ sysctl kernel.randomize_va_space $ grep kernel.randomize_va_space /etc/sysctl.conf The output of the command should indicate a value of at least "1" (preferably "2"). If this value is not the default value, investigate how it could have been adjusted at runtime, and verify it is not set improperly in "/etc/sysctl.conf". If the correct value is not returned, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-46153r2_chk )

The status of the "kernel.randomize_va_space" kernel parameter can be queried by running the following commands:

$ sysctl kernel.randomize_va_space
$ grep kernel.randomize_va_space /etc/sysctl.conf

The output of the command should indicate a value of at least "1" (preferably "2"). If this value is not the default value, investigate how it could have been adjusted at runtime, and verify it is not set improperly in "/etc/sysctl.conf".
If the correct value is not returned, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-43543r1_fix)
To set the runtime status of the "kernel.randomize_va_space" kernel parameter, run the following command: # sysctl -w kernel.randomize_va_space=2 If this is not the system's default value, add the following line to "/etc/sysctl.conf": kernel.randomize_va_space = 2