The Photon operating system must implement address space layout randomization to protect its memory from unauthorized code execution.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-258848	PHTN-40-000160	SV-258848r933605_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
VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-10-29

Details

Check Text ( C-62588r933603_chk )
At the command line, run the following command to verify address space layout randomization is enabled: # cat /proc/sys/kernel/randomize_va_space If the value of "randomize_va_space" is not "2", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-62497r933604_fix)
Navigate to and open: /etc/sysctl.d/zz-stig-hardening.conf Add or update the following line: kernel.randomize_va_space=2 At the command line, run the following command to load the new configuration: # /sbin/sysctl --load /etc/sysctl.d/zz-stig-hardening.conf Note: If the file zz-stig-hardening.conf does not exist, it must be created.