The ESXi host Secure Shell (SSH) daemon must be configured to not allow gateway ports.

An XCCDF Rule

Description

<VulnDiscussion>SSH Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection forwarding provides a mechanism to establish TCP connections proxied by the SSH server. This function can provide convenience similar to a virtual private network (VPN) with the similar risk of providing a path to circumvent firewalls and network Access Control Lists (ACLs). Gateway ports allow remote forwarded ports to bind to nonloopback addresses on the server.</VulnDiscussion><FalsePositives></FalsePositives><FalseNegatives></FalseNegatives><Documentable>false</Documentable><Mitigations></Mitigations><SeverityOverrideGuidance></SeverityOverrideGuidance><PotentialImpacts></PotentialImpacts><ThirdPartyTools></ThirdPartyTools><MitigationControl></MitigationControl><Responsibility></Responsibility><IAControls></IAControls>

ID: SV-258763r933350_rule
Severity: Low
References: CCI-000366
Updated: 17 days ago

From an ESXi shell, run the following command:

# esxcli system ssh server config set -k gatewayports -v no

or
From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following commands:

$esxcli = Get-EsxCli -v2
$arguments = $esxcli.system.ssh.server.config.set.CreateArgs()
$arguments.keyword = 'gatewayports'
$arguments.value = 'no'
$esxcli.system.ssh.server.config.set.Invoke($arguments)

The ESXi host Secure Shell (SSH) daemon must be configured to not allow gateway ports.

Description

Remediation - Manual Procedure