Vulnerability Discussion

Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. Structured Exception Handling Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) blocks exploits that use the Structured Exception Handling overwrite technique, a common buffer overflow attack.

Check

Verify SEHOP is turned on.

If the following registry value does not exist or is not configured as specified, this is a finding:

Registry Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Registry Path: \SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\kernel\

Value Name: DisableExceptionChainValidation

Value Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0x00000000 (0)

Fix

Configure the policy value for Computer Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> MS Security Guide >> "Enable Structured Exception Handling Overwrite Protection (SEHOP)" to "Enabled".

This policy setting requires the installation of the SecGuide custom templates included with the STIG package. "SecGuide.admx" and "SecGuide.adml" must be copied to the \Windows\PolicyDefinitions and \Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US directories respectively.