The system must limit the ability of processes to have simultaneous write and execute access to memory.

From Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000366

SV-50398r2_rule The system must limit the ability of processes to have simultaneous write and execute access to memory.

Vulnerability discussion

ExecShield uses the segmentation feature on all x86 systems to prevent execution in memory higher than a certain address. It writes an address as a limit in the code segment descriptor, to control where code can be executed, on a per-process basis. When the kernel places a process's memory regions such as the stack and heap higher than this address, the hardware prevents execution in that address range.

Check content

The status of the "kernel.exec-shield" kernel parameter can be queried by running the following command: $ sysctl kernel.exec-shield $ grep kernel.exec-shield /etc/sysctl.conf The output of the command should indicate a value of "1". 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

To set the runtime status of the "kernel.exec-shield" kernel parameter, run the following command: # sysctl -w kernel.exec-shield=1 If this is not the system's default value, add the following line to "/etc/sysctl.conf": kernel.exec-shield = 1

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