Technical Tip: ASLR on FortiGate and memory usage concerns.
| Description | This article describes ASLR. ASLR stands for Address Space Layout Randomization, a computer security technique that randomizes the memory addresses of key areas of a running program, such as executables and system libraries. By randomizing these memory locations at each launch, ASLR makes it significantly harder for attackers to successfully execute code injection or buffer overflow attacks, which often rely on knowing the fixed addresses of these components to exploit vulnerabilities. |
| Scope | FortiGate. |
| Solution | ASLR is a non-configurable kernel-level security hardening feature introduced progressively in FortiOS. It enhances protection against memory-based exploits but consumes additional RAM due to randomization overhead.
Memory increase on low-end models with 4 GB RAM and ASLR - FortiOS 7.4.8 release notes. Appliances with 8GB or more have full ASLR implemented.
This feature does not run on low end appliances with 2GB of RAM. |
