VMware vSphere 7.0 ESXi Security Technical Implementation Guide
Rules, Groups, and Values defined within the XCCDF Benchmark
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SRG-OS-000104-VMM-000500
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SRG-OS-000104-VMM-000500
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Active Directory ESX Admin group membership must not be used when adding ESXi hosts to Active Directory.
When adding ESXi hosts to Active Directory, all user/group accounts assigned to the Active Directory group \"ESX Admins\" will have full administrative access to the host. If this group is not co...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000163-VMM-000700
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The ESXi host must set a timeout to automatically disable idle shell sessions after two minutes.
If a user forgets to log out of their local or remote ESXi Shell session, the idle connection will remain open indefinitely and increase the likelihood of inappropriate host access via session hija...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000163-VMM-000700
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The ESXi host must terminate shell services after 10 minutes.
When the ESXi Shell or Secure Shell (SSH) services are enabled on a host, they will run indefinitely. To avoid having these services left running, set the "ESXiShellTimeOut". The "ESXiShellTimeOut"...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000163-VMM-000700
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The ESXi host must log out of the console UI after two minutes.
When the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) is enabled and logged in, it should be automatically logged out if left logged on to avoid access by unauthorized persons. The "DcuiTimeOut" setting de...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000341-VMM-001220
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SRG-OS-000355-VMM-001330
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SRG-OS-000366-VMM-001430
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The ESXi Image Profile and vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB) acceptance levels must be verified.
Verify the ESXi Image Profile to only allow signed VIBs. An unsigned VIB represents untested code installed on an ESXi host. The ESXi Image profile supports four acceptance levels: 1. VMwareCerti...Rule High Severity -
SRG-OS-000423-VMM-001700
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The ESXi host must protect the confidentiality and integrity of transmitted information by isolating vMotion traffic.
While encrypted vMotion is available, vMotion traffic should still be sequestered from other traffic to further protect it from attack. This network must only be accessible to other ESXi hosts, pre...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000423-VMM-001700
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The ESXi host must protect the confidentiality and integrity of transmitted information by protecting ESXi management traffic.
The vSphere management network provides access to the vSphere management interface on each component. Services running on the management interface provide an opportunity for an attacker to gain pri...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000423-VMM-001700
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The ESXi host must protect the confidentiality and integrity of transmitted information by isolating IP-based storage traffic.
Virtual machines (VMs) might share virtual switches and VLANs with the IP-based storage configurations. IP-based storage includes vSAN, iSCSI, and NFS. This configuration might expose IP-based stor...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) must be configured properly on the ESXi host.
If SNMP is not being used, it must remain disabled. If it is being used, the proper trap destination must be configured. If SNMP is not properly configured, monitoring information can be sent to a ...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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The ESXi host must enable bidirectional Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) authentication for Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) traffic.
When enabled, vSphere performs bidirectional authentication of both the iSCSI target and host. When not authenticating both the iSCSI target and host, there is potential for a man-in-the-middle att...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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The ESXi host must disable Inter-Virtual Machine (VM) Transparent Page Sharing.
Published academic papers have demonstrated that by forcing a flush and reload of cache memory, it is possible to measure memory timings to try to determine an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) en...Rule Low Severity -
SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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The ESXi host must configure the firewall to restrict access to services running on the host.
Unrestricted access to services running on an ESXi host can expose a host to outside attacks and unauthorized access. Reduce the risk by configuring the ESXi firewall to only allow access from auth...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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The ESXi host must configure the firewall to block network traffic by default.
In addition to service-specific firewall rules, ESXi has a default firewall rule policy to allow or deny incoming and outgoing traffic. Reduce the risk of attack by ensuring this is set to deny inc...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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All port groups on standard switches must be configured to reject forged transmits.
If the virtual machine (VM) operating system changes the Media Access Control (MAC) address, the operating system can send frames with an impersonated source MAC address at any time. This allows an...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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All port groups on standard switches must be configured to reject guest Media Access Control (MAC) address changes.
If the virtual machine (VM) operating system changes the MAC address, it can send frames with an impersonated source MAC address at any time. This allows it to stage malicious attacks on the device...Rule High Severity -
SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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All port groups on standard switches must be configured to reject guest promiscuous mode requests.
When promiscuous mode is enabled for a virtual switch, all virtual machines (VMs) connected to the Portgroup have the potential to read all packets across that network (only the virtual machines co...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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Use of the dvFilter network application programming interfaces (APIs) must be restricted.
If the organization is not using products that use the dvfilter network API, the host should not be configured to send network information to a virtual machine (VM). If the API is enabled, an atta...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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All port groups on standard switches must not be configured to virtual local area network (VLAN) 4095 unless Virtual Guest Tagging (VGT) is required.
When a port group is set to VLAN 4095, the vSwitch passes all network frames to the attached virtual machines (VMs) without modifying the VLAN tags. In vSphere, this is referred to as VGT. The VM m...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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The ESXi host must not provide root/administrator-level access to Common Information Model (CIM)-based hardware monitoring tools or other third-party applications.
The CIM system provides an interface that enables hardware-level management from remote applications via a set of standard application programming interfaces (APIs). In environments that implemen...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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The ESXi host must have all security patches and updates installed.
Installing software updates is a fundamental mitigation against the exploitation of publicly known vulnerabilities.Rule High Severity -
SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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The ESXi host must enable Secure Boot.
Secure Boot is part of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firmware standard. With UEFI Secure Boot enabled, a host refuses to load any UEFI driver or app unless the operating system b...Rule Medium Severity -
SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000
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