Skip to content
ATO Pathways
  Log In

Enable page allocator poisoning

An XCCDF Rule

Description

To enable poisoning of free pages, add the argument page_poison=1 to the default GRUB 2 command line for the Linux operating system. To ensure that page_poison=1 is added as a kernel command line argument to newly installed kernels, add page_poison=1 to the default Grub2 command line for Linux operating systems. Modify the line within /etc/default/grub as shown below: 

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="... page_poison=1 ..."
Run the following command to update command line for already installed kernels:
# grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args="page_poison=1"

Rationale

Poisoning writes an arbitrary value to freed pages, so any modification or reference to that page after being freed or before being initialized will be detected and prevented. This prevents many types of use-after-free vulnerabilities at little performance cost. Also prevents leak of data and detection of corrupted memory.

ID
xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_grub2_page_poison_argument
Severity
Medium
References
Updated



Remediation - Ansible

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
  - grub2_page_poison_argument

Remediation - Shell Script

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if [ ! -f /.dockerenv ] && [ ! -f /run/.containerenv ] && { rpm --quiet -q grub2-common; }; then

grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args=page_poison=1

else

Remediation - OS Build Blueprint

[customizations.kernel]
append = "page_poison=1"