Definition
Execution Isolation techniques prevent application processes from accessing non-essential system resources, such as memory, devices, or files.
Implementation perspective
Execution Isolation should be treated as a technical defensive capability rather than a product checkbox. In practice, teams should define the protected scope, the conditions under which the technique acts, and the observable evidence that demonstrates the intended behavior. For this technique, likely engineering context includes Create Process, Executable File, Process, Subroutine.
Use the technique to create a logical or physical boundary that limits access, execution, communication, or movement.
Questions to ask
- What is being isolated, from whom or what, and under which conditions?
- Which flows or operations remain explicitly allowed across the boundary?
- What happens when the isolation mechanism fails or loses policy context?
- How is the boundary tested for alternate paths, bypasses, and unintended dependencies?
Evidence and validation
- Architecture and data-flow diagrams showing the isolation boundary
- Policy, rule, or configuration exports from enforcing components
- Tests of allowed, denied, and failure-state behavior
- Monitoring evidence for boundary violations and policy changes
Common failure patterns
- The intended boundary has undocumented alternate paths or inherited trust relationships.
- Rules accumulate without ownership, review, or removal of obsolete exceptions.
- Isolation is assumed from network location while application, identity, or management paths remain open.
This implementation perspective is original Bare Metal Cyber educational content. It does not replace the official D3FEND definition or establish that a specific product implements the technique.
Technique hierarchy
Top-level family
Parent techniques
None listed at this level.
Artifacts and ontology entities
These relationships describe how D3FEND connects a defensive technique to artifacts or other ontology entities. They describe graph semantics, not a product certification.
Show inferred artifact relationship paths (9)
NIST SP 800-53 relationships
The relation label is preserved from the D3FEND ontology. It is not converted into a claim that the control automatically implements or validates this technique.
Offensive-technique relationships
These relationships are generated from D3FEND graph paths and are explicitly experimental. They should be treated as hypotheses for defensive analysis—not as proof that the technique prevents, detects, or removes an offensive behavior.
ATT&CK Enterprise (62)
Showing the first 60 of 62 source-derived relationships. Open the official D3FEND technique for the current graph view.
ATT&CK for ICS (14)
Authoritative sources
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