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XCCDF
VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Security Technical Implementation Guide
VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Security Technical Implementation Guide
An XCCDF Benchmark
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File Metadata
67 rules organized in 67 groups
SRG-APP-000065
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must enforce the limit of three consecutive invalid login attempts by a user.
Medium Severity
By limiting the number of failed login attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute forcing, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account.
SRG-APP-000068
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must display the Standard Mandatory DOD Notice and Consent Banner before logon.
Medium Severity
Display of the DOD-approved use notification before granting access to the application ensures privacy and security notification verbiage used is consistent with applicable federal laws, Executive Orders, directives, policies, regulations, standards, and guidance. System use notifications are required only for access via login interfaces with human users and are not required when such human interfaces do not exist. The banner must be formatted in accordance with DTM-08-060. Use the following verbiage for applications that can accommodate banners of 1300 characters: "You are accessing a U.S. Government (USG) Information System (IS) that is provided for USG-authorized use only. By using this IS (which includes any device attached to this IS), you consent to the following conditions: -The USG routinely intercepts and monitors communications on this IS for purposes including, but not limited to, penetration testing, COMSEC monitoring, network operations and defense, personnel misconduct (PM), law enforcement (LE), and counterintelligence (CI) investigations. -At any time, the USG may inspect and seize data stored on this IS. -Communications using, or data stored on, this IS are not private, are subject to routine monitoring, interception, and search, and may be disclosed or used for any USG-authorized purpose. -This IS includes security measures (e.g., authentication and access controls) to protect USG interests--not for your personal benefit or privacy. -Notwithstanding the above, using this IS does not constitute consent to PM, LE or CI investigative searching or monitoring of the content of privileged communications, or work product, related to personal representation or services by attorneys, psychotherapists, or clergy, and their assistants. Such communications and work product are private and confidential. See User Agreement for details." Use the following verbiage for operating systems that have severe limitations on the number of characters that can be displayed in the banner: "I've read (literal ampersand) consent to terms in IS user agreem't." Satisfies: SRG-APP-000068, SRG-APP-000069, SRG-APP-000070
SRG-APP-000095
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must produce audit records containing information to establish what type of events occurred.
Medium Severity
Without establishing what types of events occurred, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events leading up to an outage or attack.
SRG-APP-000141
1 Rule
vCenter Server plugins must be verified.
Medium Severity
The vCenter Server includes a vSphere Client extensibility framework, which provides the ability to extend the vSphere Client with menu selections or toolbar icons that provide access to vCenter Server add-on components or external, web-based functionality. vSphere Client plugins or extensions run at the same privilege level as the user. Malicious extensions might masquerade as useful add-ons while compromising the system by stealing credentials or incorrectly configuring the system. Additionally, vCenter comes with a number of plugins preinstalled that may or may not be necessary for proper operation.
SRG-APP-000148
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must uniquely identify and authenticate users or processes acting on behalf of users.
Medium Severity
To ensure accountability and prevent unauthenticated access, organizational users must be identified and authenticated to prevent potential misuse and compromise of the system. Organizational users include organizational employees or individuals the organization deems to have equivalent status of employees (e.g., contractors). Organizational users (and any processes acting on behalf of users) must be uniquely identified and authenticated for all accesses except the following. (i) Accesses explicitly identified and documented by the organization. Organizations document specific user actions that can be performed on the information system without identification or authentication; and (ii) Accesses that occur through authorized use of group authenticators without individual authentication. Organizations may require unique identification of individuals in group accounts (e.g., shared privilege accounts) or for detailed accountability of individual activity. Using Active Directory or an identity provider for authentication provides more robust account management capabilities and accountability. Satisfies: SRG-APP-000148, SRG-APP-000153, SRG-APP-000163, SRG-APP-000180, SRG-APP-000234
SRG-APP-000080
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must require multifactor authentication.
Medium Severity
Without the use of multifactor authentication, the ease of access to privileged functions is greatly increased. Multifactor authentication requires using two or more factors to achieve authentication. Factors include: (i) something a user knows (e.g., password/PIN); (ii) something a user has (e.g., cryptographic identification device, token); or (iii) something a user is (e.g., biometric). Satisfies: SRG-APP-000080, SRG-APP-000149, SRG-APP-000150, SRG-APP-000391, SRG-APP-000402
SRG-APP-000164
1 Rule
The vCenter Server passwords must be at least 15 characters in length.
Medium Severity
The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password length is one factor of several that helps to determine strength and how long it takes to crack a password. The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised. Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.
SRG-APP-000165
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must prohibit password reuse for a minimum of five generations.
Medium Severity
Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. To meet password policy requirements, passwords must be changed at specific policy-based intervals. If the information system or application allows the user to consecutively reuse their password when that password has exceeded its defined lifetime, the result is a password that is not changed per policy requirements.
SRG-APP-000166
1 Rule
The vCenter Server passwords must contain at least one uppercase character.
Medium Severity
Use of a complex password helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password complexity is one factor of several that determine how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password is, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.
SRG-APP-000167
1 Rule
The vCenter Server passwords must contain at least one lowercase character.
Medium Severity
Use of a complex password helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password complexity is one factor of several that determine how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.
SRG-APP-000168
1 Rule
The vCenter Server passwords must contain at least one numeric character.
Medium Severity
Use of a complex password helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password complexity is one factor of several that determine how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.
SRG-APP-000169
1 Rule
The vCenter Server passwords must contain at least one special character.
Medium Severity
Use of a complex password helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password complexity is one factor in determining how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised. Special characters are not alphanumeric. Examples include: ~ ! @ # $ % ^ *.
SRG-APP-000172
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must enable FIPS-validated cryptography.
High Severity
FIPS 140-2 is the current standard for validating that mechanisms used to access cryptographic modules use authentication that meets DOD requirements. In vSphere 6.7 and later, ESXi and vCenter Server use FIPS-validated cryptography to protect management interfaces and the VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA). vSphere 7.0 Update 2 and later adds additional FIPS-validated cryptography to vCenter Server Appliance. By default, this FIPS validation option is disabled and must be enabled. Satisfies: SRG-APP-000172, SRG-APP-000179, SRG-APP-000224, SRG-APP-000231, SRG-APP-000412, SRG-APP-000514, SRG-APP-000555, SRG-APP-000600, SRG-APP-000610, SRG-APP-000620, SRG-APP-000630, SRG-APP-000635
SRG-APP-000174
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must enforce a 90-day maximum password lifetime restriction.
Medium Severity
Any password, no matter how complex, can eventually be cracked. Therefore, passwords must be changed at specific intervals. One method of minimizing this risk is to use complex passwords and periodically change them. If the application does not limit the lifetime of passwords and force users to change their passwords, there is the risk that the system and/or application passwords could be compromised. This requirement does not include emergency administration accounts, which are meant for access to the application in case of failure. These accounts are not required to have maximum password lifetime restrictions.
SRG-APP-000175
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must enable revocation checking for certificate-based authentication.
Medium Severity
The system must establish the validity of the user-supplied identity certificate using Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) and/or Certificate Revocation List (CRL) revocation checking. Satisfies: SRG-APP-000175, SRG-APP-000392, SRG-APP-000401, SRG-APP-000403
SRG-APP-000190
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must terminate vSphere Client sessions after 15 minutes of inactivity.
Medium Severity
Terminating an idle session within a short time period reduces the window of opportunity for unauthorized personnel to take control of a management session enabled on the console or console port that has been left unattended. In addition, quickly terminating an idle session will also free resources committed by the managed network element. Satisfies: SRG-APP-000190, SRG-APP-000295, SRG-APP-000389
SRG-APP-000211
1 Rule
The vCenter Server user roles must be verified.
Medium Severity
Users and service accounts must only be assigned privileges they require. Least privilege requires that these privileges must only be assigned if needed to reduce risk of confidentiality, availability, or integrity loss. Satisfies: SRG-APP-000211, SRG-APP-000233, SRG-APP-000380
SRG-APP-000247
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must manage excess capacity, bandwidth, or other redundancy to limit the effects of information flooding types of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks by enabling Network I/O Control (NIOC).
Medium Severity
DoS is a condition when a resource is not available for legitimate users. When this occurs, the organization either cannot accomplish its mission or must operate at degraded capacity. Managing excess capacity ensures sufficient capacity is available to counter flooding attacks. Employing increased capacity and service redundancy may reduce the susceptibility to some DoS attacks. Managing excess capacity may include, for example, establishing selected usage priorities, quotas, or partitioning.
SRG-APP-000291
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must provide an immediate real-time alert to the system administrator (SA) and information system security officer (ISSO), at a minimum, on every Single Sign-On (SSO) account action.
Medium Severity
Once an attacker establishes initial access to a system, they often attempt to create a persistent method of reestablishing access. One way to accomplish this is for the attacker to create a new account. They may also try to hijack an existing account by changing a password or enabling a previously disabled account. Therefore, all actions performed on accounts in the SSO domain much be alerted on in vCenter at a minimum and ideally on a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system as well. To ensure the appropriate personnel are alerted about SSO account actions, create a new vCenter alarm for the "com.vmware.sso.PrincipalManagement" event ID and configure the alert mechanisms appropriately. Satisfies: SRG-APP-000291, SRG-APP-000292, SRG-APP-000293, SRG-APP-000294, SRG-APP-000320
SRG-APP-000345
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must set the interval for counting failed login attempts to at least 15 minutes.
Medium Severity
By limiting the number of failed login attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute forcing, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account.
SRG-APP-000358
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must be configured to send logs to a central log server.
Medium Severity
vCenter must be configured to send near real-time log data to syslog collectors so information will be available to investigators in the case of a security incident or to assist in troubleshooting.
SRG-APP-000360
1 Rule
The vCenter server must provide an immediate real-time alert to the system administrator (SA) and information system security officer (ISSO), at a minimum, of all audit failure events requiring real-time alerts.
Medium Severity
It is critical for the appropriate personnel to be aware if a system is at risk of failing to process audit logs as required. Without a real-time alert, security personnel may be unaware of an impending failure of the audit capability and system operation may be adversely affected. Alerts provide organizations with urgent messages. Real-time alerts provide these messages immediately (i.e., the time from event detection to alert occurs in seconds or less). Satisfies: SRG-APP-000360, SRG-APP-000379, SRG-APP-000510
SRG-APP-000371
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must compare internal information system clocks at least every 24 hours with an authoritative time server.
Medium Severity
Inaccurate time stamps make it more difficult to correlate events and can lead to an inaccurate analysis. Determining the correct time a particular event occurred on a system is critical when conducting forensic analysis and investigating system events. Sources outside of the configured acceptable allowance (drift) may be inaccurate. Additionally, unnecessary synchronization may have an adverse impact on system performance and may indicate malicious activity. Synchronizing internal information system clocks to an authoritative time server provides uniformity of time stamps for information systems with multiple system clocks and systems connected over a network.
SRG-APP-000427
1 Rule
The vCenter Server Machine Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate must be issued by a DOD certificate authority.
Medium Severity
Untrusted certificate authorities (CA) can issue certificates, but they may be issued by organizations or individuals that seek to compromise DOD systems or by organizations with insufficient security controls. If the CA used for verifying the certificate is not a DOD-approved CA, trust of this CA has not been established. The DOD will only accept public key infrastructure (PKI) certificates obtained from a DOD-approved internal or external certificate authority. Reliance on CAs for the establishment of secure sessions includes, for example, the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates. The default self-signed, VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA)-issued vCenter reverse proxy certificate must be replaced with a DOD-approved certificate. The use of a DOD certificate on the vCenter reverse proxy and other services assures clients that the service they are connecting to is legitimate and trusted.
SRG-APP-000428
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must enable data at rest encryption for vSAN.
Medium Severity
Applications handling data requiring "data at rest" protections must employ cryptographic mechanisms to prevent unauthorized disclosure and modification of the information at rest. Data encryption is a common technique used in environments that require additional levels of security. It consists of a process to ensure that data can only be consumed by systems that have appropriate levels of access. Approved systems must have and use the appropriate cryptographic keys to encrypt and decrypt the data. Systems that do not have the keys will not be able to consume the data in any meaningful way, as it will remain encrypted in accordance with the commonly used Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST. vSAN supports Data-At-Rest Encryption and Data-in-Transit Encryption and uses an AES 256 cipher. Data is encrypted after all other processing, such as deduplication, is performed. Data at rest encryption protects data on storage devices in case a device is removed from the cluster.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must disable the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP).
Medium Severity
The VMware CEIP sends VMware anonymized system information that is used to improve the quality, reliability, and functionality of VMware products and services. For confidentiality purposes, this feature must be disabled.
SRG-APP-000575
1 Rule
The vCenter server must enforce SNMPv3 security features where SNMP is required.
Medium Severity
SNMPv3 supports commercial-grade security, including authentication, authorization, access control, and privacy. Previous versions of the protocol contained well-known security weaknesses that were easily exploited. SNMPv3 can be configured for identification and cryptographically based authentication. SNMPv3 defines a user-based security model (USM) and a view-based access control model (VACM). SNMPv3 USM provides data integrity, data origin authentication, message replay protection, and protection against disclosure of the message payload. SNMPv3 VACM provides access control to determine whether a specific type of access (read or write) to the management information is allowed. Implement both VACM and USM for full protection. SNMPv3 must be disabled by default and enabled only if used. SNMP v3 provides security feature enhancements to SNMP, including encryption and message authentication.
SRG-APP-000575
1 Rule
The vCenter server must disable SNMPv1/2 receivers.
Medium Severity
SNMPv3 supports commercial-grade security, including authentication, authorization, access control, and privacy. Previous versions of the protocol contained well-known security weaknesses that were easily exploited. Therefore, SNMPv1/2 receivers must be disabled, while SNMPv3 is configured in another control. vCenter exposes SNMP v1/2 in the UI and SNMPv3 in the CLI.
SRG-APP-000345
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must require an administrator to unlock an account locked due to excessive login failures.
Medium Severity
By requiring that Single Sign-On (SSO) accounts be unlocked manually, the risk of unauthorized access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute forcing, is reduced. When the account unlock time is set to zero, a locked account can only be unlocked manually by an administrator.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must disable the distributed virtual switch health check.
Medium Severity
Network health check is disabled by default. Once enabled, the health check packets contain information on host#, vds#, and port#, which an attacker would find useful. It is recommended that network health check be used for troubleshooting and turned off when troubleshooting is finished.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must set the distributed port group Forged Transmits policy to "Reject".
Medium Severity
If the virtual machine 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 operating system to stage malicious attacks on the devices in a network by impersonating a network adaptor authorized by the receiving network. When the "Forged Transmits" option is set to "Accept", ESXi does not compare source and effective MAC addresses. To protect against MAC impersonation, set the "Forged Transmits" option to "Reject". The host compares the source MAC address being transmitted by the guest operating system with the effective MAC address for its virtual machine adapter to determine if they match. If the addresses do not match, the ESXi host drops the packet.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must set the distributed port group Media Access Control (MAC) Address Change policy to "Reject".
Medium Severity
If the virtual machine 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 devices in a network by impersonating a network adaptor authorized by the receiving network. This will prevent virtual machines from changing their effective MAC address and will affect applications that require this functionality. This will also affect how a layer 2 bridge will operate and will affect applications that require a specific MAC address for licensing.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must set the distributed port group Promiscuous Mode policy to "Reject".
Medium Severity
When promiscuous mode is enabled for a virtual switch, all virtual machines connected to the port group have the potential of reading all packets across that network, meaning only the virtual machines connected to that port group. Promiscuous mode is disabled by default on the ESXi Server, and this is the recommended setting.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must only send NetFlow traffic to authorized collectors.
Medium Severity
The distributed virtual switch can export NetFlow information about traffic crossing the switch. NetFlow exports are not encrypted and can contain information about the virtual network, making it easier for a man-in-the-middle attack to be executed successfully. If NetFlow export is required, verify that all NetFlow target Internet Protocols (IPs) are correct.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must configure all port groups to a value other than that of the native virtual local area network (VLAN).
Medium Severity
ESXi does not use the concept of native VLAN. Frames with VLAN specified in the port group will have a tag, but frames with VLAN not specified in the port group are not tagged and therefore will end up belonging to native VLAN of the physical switch. For example, frames on VLAN 1 from a Cisco physical switch will be untagged, because this is considered as the native VLAN. However, frames from ESXi specified as VLAN 1 will be tagged with a "1"; therefore, traffic from ESXi that is destined for the native VLAN will not be correctly routed (because it is tagged with a "1" instead of being untagged), and traffic from the physical switch coming from the native VLAN will not be visible (because it is not tagged). If the ESXi virtual switch port group uses the native VLAN ID, traffic from those virtual machines will not be visible to the native VLAN on the switch, because the switch is expecting untagged traffic.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must not configure VLAN Trunking unless Virtual Guest Tagging (VGT) is required and authorized.
Medium Severity
When a port group is set to VLAN Trunking, the vSwitch passes all network frames in the specified range to the attached virtual machines without modifying the virtual local area network (VLAN) tags. In vSphere, this is referred to as VGT. The virtual machine must process the VLAN information itself via an 802.1Q driver in the operating system. VLAN Trunking must only be implemented if the attached virtual machines have been specifically authorized and are capable of managing VLAN tags themselves. If VLAN Trunking is enabled inappropriately, it may cause a denial of service or allow a virtual machine to interact with traffic on an unauthorized VLAN.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must not configure all port groups to virtual local area network (VLAN) values reserved by upstream physical switches.
Medium Severity
Certain physical switches reserve certain VLAN IDs for internal purposes and often disallow traffic configured to these values. For example, Cisco Catalyst switches typically reserve VLANs 1001 to 1024 and 4094, while Nexus switches typically reserve 3968 to 4094. Check with the documentation for the organization's specific switch. Using a reserved VLAN might result in a denial of service on the network.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must configure the "vpxuser" auto-password to be changed every 30 days.
Medium Severity
By default, vCenter will change the "vpxuser" password automatically every 30 days. Ensure this setting meets site policies. If it does not, configure it to meet password aging policies. Note: It is very important the password aging policy is not shorter than the default interval that is set to automatically change the "vpxuser" password to preclude the possibility that vCenter might be locked out of an ESXi host.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must configure the "vpxuser" password to meet length policy.
Medium Severity
The "vpxuser" password default length is 32 characters. Ensure this setting meets site policies; if not, configure to meet password length policies. Longer passwords make brute-force password attacks more difficult. The "vpxuser" password is added by vCenter, meaning no manual intervention is normally required. The "vpxuser" password length must never be modified to less than the default length of 32 characters.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must be isolated from the public internet but must still allow for patch notification and delivery.
Low Severity
vCenter and the embedded Lifecycle Manager system must never have a direct route to the internet. Despite this, updates and patches sourced from VMware on the internet must be delivered in a timely manner. There are two methods to accomplish this: a proxy server and the Update Manager Download Service (UMDS). UMDS is an optional module for Lifecycle Manager that fetches upgrades for virtual appliances, patch metadata, patch binaries, and notifications that would not otherwise be available to an isolated Lifecycle Manager directly. Alternatively, a proxy for Lifecycle Manager can be configured to allow controlled, limited access to the public internet for the sole purpose of patch gathering. Either solution mitigates the risk of internet connectivity by limiting its scope and use.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must use unique service accounts when applications connect to vCenter.
Medium Severity
To not violate nonrepudiation (i.e., deny the authenticity of who is connecting to vCenter), when applications need to connect to vCenter they must use unique service accounts.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must protect the confidentiality and integrity of transmitted information by isolating Internet Protocol (IP)-based storage traffic.
Medium Severity
Virtual machines might share virtual switches and virtual local area networks (VLAN) with the IP-based storage configurations. IP-based storage includes vSAN, Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI), and Network File System (NFS). This configuration might expose IP-based storage traffic to unauthorized virtual machine users. IP-based storage frequently is not encrypted. It can be viewed by anyone with access to this network. To restrict unauthorized users from viewing the IP-based storage traffic, the IP-based storage network must be logically separated from the production traffic. Configuring the IP-based storage adaptors on separate VLANs or network segments from other VMkernels and virtual machines will limit unauthorized users from viewing the traffic.
SRG-APP-000358
1 Rule
The vCenter server must be configured to send events to a central log server.
Medium Severity
vCenter server generates volumes of security-relevant application-level events. Examples include logins, system reconfigurations, system degradation warnings, and more. To ensure these events are available for forensic analysis and correlation, they must be sent to the syslog and forwarded on to the configured Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system and/or central log server. The vCenter server sends events to syslog by default, but this configuration must be verified and maintained.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must disable or restrict the connectivity between vSAN Health Check and public Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) by use of an external proxy server.
Medium Severity
The vSAN Health Check is able to download the HCL from VMware to check compliance against the underlying vSAN Cluster hosts. To ensure the vCenter server is not directly downloading content from the internet, this functionality must be disabled. If this feature is necessary, an external proxy server must be configured.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must configure the vSAN Datastore name to a unique name.
Medium Severity
A vSAN Datastore name by default is "vsanDatastore". If more than one vSAN cluster is present in vCenter, both datastores will have the same name by default, potentially leading to confusion and manually misplaced workloads.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must disable Username/Password and Windows Integrated Authentication.
Medium Severity
All forms of authentication other than Common Access Card (CAC) must be disabled. Password authentication can be temporarily reenabled for emergency access to the local Single Sign-On (SSO) accounts or Active Directory user/pass accounts, but it must be disabled as soon as CAC authentication is functional.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must restrict access to the default roles with cryptographic permissions.
Medium Severity
In vSphere, the built-in "Administrator" role contains permission to perform cryptographic operations such as Key Management Server (KMS) functions and encrypting and decrypting virtual machine disks. This role must be reserved for cryptographic administrators where virtual machine encryption and/or vSAN encryption is in use. A new built-in role called "No Cryptography Administrator" exists to provide all administrative permissions except cryptographic operations. Permissions must be restricted such that normal vSphere administrators are assigned the "No Cryptography Administrator" role or more restrictive. The "Administrator" role must be tightly controlled and must not be applied to administrators who will not be doing cryptographic work. Catastrophic data loss can result from poorly administered cryptography.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must restrict access to cryptographic permissions.
Medium Severity
These permissions must be reserved for cryptographic administrators where virtual machine encryption and/or vSAN encryption is in use. Catastrophic data loss can result from poorly administered cryptography.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must have Mutual Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) configured for vSAN Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) targets.
Medium Severity
When enabled, vSphere performs bidirectional authentication of both the iSCSI target and host. When not authenticating both the iSCSI target and host, the potential exists for a man-in-the-middle attack in which an attacker might impersonate either side of the connection to steal data. Bidirectional authentication mitigates this risk.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must have new Key Encryption Keys (KEKs) reissued at regular intervals for vSAN encrypted datastore(s).
Medium Severity
The KEK for a vSAN encrypted datastore is generated by the Key Management Server (KMS) and serves as a wrapper and lock around the Disk Encryption Key (DEK). The DEK is generated by the host and is used to encrypt and decrypt the datastore. A shallow rekey is a procedure in which the KMS issues a new KEK to the ESXi host, which rewraps the DEK but does not change the DEK or any data on disk. This operation must be done on a regular, site-defined interval and can be viewed as similar in criticality to changing an administrative password. If the KMS is compromised, a standing operational procedure to rekey will put a time limit on the usefulness of any stolen KMS data.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must use secure Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAPS) when adding an LDAP identity source.
Medium Severity
LDAP is an industry standard protocol for querying directory services such as Active Directory. This protocol can operate in clear text or over a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS) encrypted tunnel. To protect confidentiality of LDAP communications, secure LDAP (LDAPS) must be explicitly configured when adding an LDAP identity source in vSphere Single Sign-On (SSO). When configuring an identity source and supplying an SSL certificate, vCenter will enforce LDAPS. The server URLs do not need to be explicitly provided if an SSL certificate is uploaded.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must limit membership to the "SystemConfiguration.BashShellAdministrators" Single Sign-On (SSO) group.
Medium Severity
vCenter SSO integrates with PAM in the underlying Photon operating system so members of the "SystemConfiguration.BashShellAdministrators" SSO group can log on to the operating system without needing a separate account. However, even though unique SSO users log on, they are transparently using a group account named "sso-user" as far as Photon auditing is concerned. While the audit trail can still be traced back to the individual SSO user, it is a more involved process. To force accountability and nonrepudiation, the SSO group "SystemConfiguration.BashShellAdministrators" must be severely restricted.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must limit membership to the "TrustedAdmins" Single Sign-On (SSO) group.
Medium Severity
The vSphere "TrustedAdmins" group grants additional rights to administer the vSphere Trust Authority feature. To force accountability and nonrepudiation, the SSO group "TrustedAdmins" must be severely restricted.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter server configuration must be backed up on a regular basis.
Medium Severity
vCenter server is the control plane for the vSphere infrastructure and all the workloads it hosts. As such, vCenter is usually a highly critical system in its own right. Backups of vCenter can now be made at a data and configuration level versus traditional storage/image-based backups. This reduces recovery time by letting the system administrator (SA) spin up a new vCenter while simultaneously importing the backed-up data. For sites that implement the Native Key Provider (NKP), introduced in 7.0 Update 2, regular vCenter backups are critical. In a recovery scenario where the virtual machine files are intact but vCenter was lost, the encrypted virtual machines will not be able to boot as their private keys were stored in vCenter after it was last backed up. When using the NKP, vCenter becomes critical to the virtual machine workloads and ceases to be just the control plane.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter server must have task and event retention set to at least 30 days.
Medium Severity
vCenter tasks and events contain valuable historical actions, useful in troubleshooting availability issues and for incident forensics. While vCenter events are sent to central log servers in real time, it is important that administrators have quick access to this information when needed. vCenter retains 30 days of tasks and events by default, and this is sufficient for most purposes. The vCenter disk partitions are also sized with this in mind. Decreasing is not recommended for operational reasons, while increasing is not recommended unless guided by VMware support due to the partition sizing concerns.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter server Native Key Provider must be backed up with a strong password.
Medium Severity
The vCenter Native Key Provider feature was introduced in 7.0 U2 and acts as a key provider for encryption-based capabilities such as encrypted virtual machines without requiring an external KMS solution. When enabling this feature, a backup must be taken, which is a PKCS#12 formatted file. If no password is provided during the backup process, this presents the opportunity for this to be used maliciously and compromise the environment.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter server must require authentication for published content libraries.
Medium Severity
In the vSphere Client, you can create a local or a subscribed content library. By using content libraries, you can store and manage content in one vCenter Server instance. Alternatively, you can distribute content across vCenter Server instances to increase consistency and facilitate the deployment workloads at scale. When publishing a content library it can be protected by requiring authentication for subscribers.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter server must enable the OVF security policy for content libraries.
Medium Severity
In the vSphere Client, you can create a local or a subscribed content library. By using content libraries, you can store and manage content in one vCenter Server instance. Alternatively, you can distribute content across vCenter Server instances to increase consistency and facilitate the deployment workloads at scale. You can protect the OVF items by applying default OVF security policy to a content library. The OVF security policy enforces strict validation on OVF items when you deploy or update the item, import items, or synchronize OVF and OVA templates. To make sure that the OVF and OVA templates are signed by a trusted certificate, you can add the OVF signing certificate from a trusted CA.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must separate authentication and authorization for administrators.
Medium Severity
Many organizations do both authentication and authorization using a centralized directory service such as Active Directory. Attackers who compromise an identity source can often add themselves to authorization groups, and simply log into systems they should not otherwise have access to. Additionally, reliance on central identity systems means that the administrators of those systems are potentially infrastructure administrators, too, as they can add themselves to infrastructure access groups at will. The use of local SSO groups for authorization helps prevent this avenue of attack by allowing the centralized identity source to still authenticate users but moving authorization into vCenter itself.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must disable CDP/LLDP on distributed switches.
Low Severity
The vSphere Distributed Virtual Switch can participate in Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) or Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP), as a listener, advertiser, or both. The information is sensitive, including IP addresses, system names, software versions, and more. It can be used by an adversary to gain a better understanding of your environment, and to impersonate devices. It is also transmitted unencrypted on the network, and as such the recommendation is to disable it.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must remove unauthorized port mirroring sessions on distributed switches.
Medium Severity
The vSphere Distributed Virtual Switch can enable port mirroring sessions allowing traffic to be mirrored from one source to a destination. If port mirroring is configured unknowingly this could allow an attacker to observe network traffic of virtual machines.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must not override port group settings at the port level on distributed switches.
Medium Severity
Port-level configuration overrides are disabled by default. Once enabled, this allows for different security settings to be set from what is established at the Port Group level. If overrides are not monitored, anyone who gains access to a VM with a less secure VDS configuration could exploit that broader access. If there are cases where particular VMs require unique configurations then a different port group with the required configuration should be created instead of overriding port group settings.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must reset port configuration when virtual machines are disconnected.
Medium Severity
Port-level configuration overrides are disabled by default. Once enabled, this allows for different security settings to be set from what is established at the Port Group level. If overrides are not monitored, anyone who gains access to a VM with a less secure VDS configuration could exploit that broader access. If any unknown or unauthorized per-port overrides exist and are not discarded when a virtual machine is disconnected from that port then a future virtual machine connected to that port may receive a less secure port.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must disable Secure Shell (SSH) access.
Medium Severity
vCenter Server is delivered as an appliance, and intended to be managed through the VAMI, vSphere Client, and APIs. SSH is a troubleshooting and support tool and should only be enabled when necessary. vCenter Server High Availability uses SSH to coordinate the replication and failover between the nodes. Use of this feature requires SSH to remain enabled.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must enable data in transit encryption for vSAN.
Medium Severity
Transit encryption must be enabled to prevent unauthorized disclosure information and to protect the confidentiality of organizational information. vSAN data-in-transit encryption has the following characteristics: -vSAN uses AES-256 bit encryption on data in transit. -Forward secrecy is enforced for vSAN data-in-transit encryption. -Traffic between data hosts and witness hosts is encrypted. -File service data traffic between the VDFS proxy and VDFS server is encrypted. -vSAN file services inter-host connections are encrypted. -vSAN uses symmetric keys that are generated dynamically and shared between hosts. Hosts dynamically generate an encryption key when they establish a connection, and they use the key to encrypt all traffic between the hosts. You do not need a key management server to perform data-in-transit encryption. Each host is authenticated when it joins the cluster, ensuring connections only to trusted hosts are allowed. When a host is removed from the cluster, it is authentication certificate is removed. vSAN data-in-transit encryption is a cluster-wide setting. When enabled, all data and metadata traffic is encrypted as it transits across hosts.
SRG-APP-000014
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must use DOD-approved encryption to protect the confidentiality of network sessions.
Medium Severity
Using older unauthorized versions or incorrectly configuring protocol negotiation makes the gateway vulnerable to known and unknown attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in this protocol. In vCenter 8 Update 3, Transport Layer Security (TLS) Profiles were introduced that allow users to manage and configure TLS parameters for the vCenter server. Several TLS profiles are available by default but not all may be suitable for high security environments.
SRG-APP-000516
1 Rule
The vCenter Server must disable accounts used for Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA).
Medium Severity
If not used for their intended purpose, default accounts must be disabled. vCenter ships with several default accounts, two of which are specific to IWA and SASL/Kerberos authentication. If other methods of authentication are used, these accounts are not needed and must be disabled.