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

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.

Verify Nutanix OS is configured to implement nonexecutable data to protect its memory from unauthorized code execution using the following command.

$ 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.

1. Nutanix AOS, Prism Central, and Files OS VMs have the OpenSSH-Server package preinstalled as part of its base package set. If the package is not installed, some corruption has taken place and the CVM must be rebuilt.

2. For Nutanix AHV, if the system's BIOS setup configuration permits toggling the No Execution bit, then set "/proc/cpuinfo" to "enable".