| V-207512 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records when successful/unsuccessful attempts to modify privileges occur. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207513 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records when successful/unsuccessful attempts to modify security objects occur. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207510 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records when successful/unsuccessful attempts to access security levels occur. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207511 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records when successful/unsuccessful attempts to access categories of information (e.g., classification levels) occur. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207358 | Medium | The VMM must alert the ISSO and SA (at a minimum) in the event of an audit processing failure. | It is critical for the appropriate personnel to be aware if a VMM is at risk of failing to process audit logs as required. Without this notification, the security personnel may be unaware of an... |
| V-207359 | Medium | The VMM must shut down by default upon audit failure (unless availability is an overriding concern). | It is critical that when the VMM is at risk of failing to process audit logs as required, it take action to mitigate the failure. Audit processing failures include: software/hardware errors;... |
| V-207514 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records when successful/unsuccessful attempts to modify security levels occur. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207515 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records when successful/unsuccessful attempts to delete privileges occur. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207354 | Medium | The VMM must produce audit records containing information to establish where the events occurred. | Without establishing where events occurred, it is difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events leading up to an outage or attack.
In order to compile an accurate risk assessment... |
| V-207355 | Medium | The VMM must produce audit records containing information to establish the source of the events. | Without establishing the source of an event, it is difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events leading up to an outage or attack.
In addition to logging where events occur... |
| V-207356 | Medium | The VMM must produce audit records containing information to establish the outcome of the events. | Without information about the outcome of events, security personnel cannot make an accurate assessment as to whether an attack was successful or if changes were made to the security state of the... |
| V-207357 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records containing the full-text recording of privileged commands or the individual identities of group account users. | Reconstruction of harmful events or forensic analysis is not possible if audit records do not contain enough information.
Organizations should consider limiting the additional audit information... |
| V-207350 | Medium | The VMM must monitor remote access methods automatically. | Remote access services, such as those providing remote access to network devices and VMMs, which lack automated capabilities, increase risk and make remote user access management difficult at... |
| V-207351 | Medium | The VMM must use DoD-approved encryption to protect the confidentiality of remote access sessions. | Without confidentiality protection mechanisms, unauthorized individuals may gain access to sensitive information via a remote access session.
Remote access is access to DoD non-public VMMs by an... |
| V-207352 | Medium | The VMM must produce audit records containing information to establish what type of events occurred. | 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.
Audit record content that may be... |
| V-207353 | Medium | The VMM must produce audit records containing information to establish when (date and time) the events occurred. | Without establishing when events occurred, it is difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events leading up to an outage or attack.
In order to compile an accurate risk assessment... |
| V-207453 | Medium | The VMM must off-load audit records onto a different system or media than the system being audited. | Information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration.
Off-loading is a common process in VMMs with limited audit storage capacity. |
| V-207452 | Medium | The VMM must allocate audit record storage capacity to store at least one weeks worth of audit records when audit records are not immediately sent to a central audit record storage facility. | In order to ensure VMMs have a sufficient storage capacity in which to write the audit logs, VMMs need to be able to allocate audit record storage capacity.
The task of allocating audit record... |
| V-207457 | Medium | The VMM must provide an audit reduction capability that supports after-the-fact investigations of security incidents. | If the audit reduction capability does not support after-the-fact investigations, it is difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events leading up to an outage or attack or identify... |
| V-207456 | Medium | The VMM must provide an audit reduction capability that supports on-demand audit review and analysis. | The ability to perform on-demand audit review and analysis, including after the audit data has been subjected to audit reduction, greatly facilitates the organization's ability to generate... |
| V-207455 | Medium | The VMM must provide an immediate real-time alert to the SA and ISSO, at a minimum, of all audit failure events requiring real-time alerts. | It is critical for the appropriate personnel to be aware if a VMM is at risk of failing to process audit logs as required. Without a real-time alert, security personnel may be unaware of an... |
| V-207454 | Medium | The VMM must provide an immediate warning to the SA and ISSO, at a minimum, when allocated audit record storage volume reaches 75% of repository maximum audit record storage capacity.
| If security personnel are not notified immediately when storage volume reaches 75%, they are unable to plan for audit record storage capacity expansion. |
| V-207516 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records when successful/unsuccessful attempts to delete security levels occur. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207459 | Medium | The VMM must provide a report generation capability that supports on-demand reporting requirements. | The report generation capability must support on-demand reporting in order to facilitate the organization's ability to generate incident reports as needed to better handle larger-scale or more... |
| V-207458 | Medium | The VMM must provide a report generation capability that supports on-demand audit review and analysis. | The report generation capability must support on-demand review and analysis in order to facilitate the organization's ability to generate incident reports as needed to better handle larger-scale... |
| V-207517 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records when successful/unsuccessful attempts to delete security objects occur. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207432 | Medium | The VMM must automatically terminate a user session after inactivity timeouts have expired or at shutdown. | Automatic session termination addresses the termination of user-initiated logical sessions in contrast to the termination of network connections that are associated with communications sessions... |
| V-207518 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records when successful/unsuccessful logon attempts occur. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207505 | Medium | The VMM must remove all software components after updated versions have been installed. | Previous versions of software components that are not removed from the VMM after updates have been installed may be exploited by adversaries. Some information technology products may remove older... |
| V-264316 | Medium | The VMM must prohibit the use or connection of unauthorized hardware components. | Hardware components provide the foundation for organizational systems and the platform for the execution of authorized software programs. Managing the inventory of hardware components and... |
| V-264315 | Medium | The VMM must disable accounts when the accounts are no longer associated to a user. | Disabling expired, inactive, or otherwise anomalous accounts supports the concepts of least privilege and least functionality which reduce the attack surface of the system. |
| V-207506 | Medium | The VMM must verify correct operation of all security functions. | Without verification of the security functions, security functions may not operate correctly and the failure may go unnoticed. Security function is defined as the hardware, software, and/or... |
| V-207501 | Medium | The VMM must maintain the confidentiality and integrity of information during reception. | Information can be either unintentionally or maliciously disclosed or modified during reception, including, for example, during de-aggregation, at protocol transformation points, and during... |
| V-207500 | Medium | The VMM must maintain the confidentiality and integrity of information during preparation for transmission. | Information can be either unintentionally or maliciously disclosed or modified during preparation for transmission, for example, during aggregation, at protocol transformation points, and during... |
| V-207349 | Medium | The VMM must conceal, via the session lock, information previously visible on the display with a publicly viewable image. | A session time-out lock is a temporary action taken when a user stops work and moves away from the immediate physical vicinity of the VMM but does not log out because of the temporary nature of... |
| V-207348 | Medium | The VMM must provide the capability for users to directly initiate a session lock. | A session lock is a temporary action taken when a user stops work and moves away from the immediate physical vicinity of the VMM but does not want to log out because of the temporary nature of the... |
| V-207347 | Medium | The VMM must initiate a session lock after a 15-minute period of inactivity. | A session time-out lock is a temporary action taken when a user stops work and moves away from the immediate physical vicinity of the VMM but does not log out because of the temporary nature of... |
| V-207346 | Medium | The VMM must retain the session lock until the user reestablishes access using established identification and authentication procedures. | A session lock is a temporary action taken when a user stops work and moves away from the immediate physical vicinity of the VMM but does not want to log out because of the temporary nature of... |
| V-207345 | Medium | The VMM must limit the number of concurrent sessions to ten for all accounts and/or account types. | VMM management includes the ability to control the number of users and user sessions that utilize the VMM. Limiting the number of allowed users and sessions per user is helpful in limiting risks... |
| V-207344 | Medium | The VMM must retain the Standard Mandatory DoD Notice and Consent Banner on the screen until users acknowledge the usage conditions and take explicit actions to log on for further access. | The banner must be acknowledged by the user prior to allowing the user access to the VMM. This provides assurance that the user has seen the message and accepted the conditions for access. If the... |
| V-207343 | Medium | The VMM must display the Standard Mandatory DoD Notice and Consent Banner before granting access to the system. | Display of a standardized and approved use notification before granting access to the VMM ensures privacy and security notification verbiage used is consistent with applicable federal laws,... |
| V-207342 | Medium | The VMM must enforce the limit of three consecutive invalid logon attempts by a user during a 15-minute time period. | By limiting the number of failed login attempts, the risk of unauthorized VMM access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute-forcing, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the... |
| V-207341 | Medium | The VMM must automatically audit account creation. | Once an attacker establishes initial access to a system, the attacker often attempts to create a persistent method of reestablishing access. One way to accomplish this is for the attacker to... |
| V-207340 | Medium | The VMM must automatically disable local accounts after a 35-day period of account inactivity. | Attackers that are able to exploit an inactive account can potentially obtain and maintain undetected access to an application. Owners of inactive accounts will not notice if unauthorized access... |
| V-207466 | Medium | The VMM must record time stamps for audit records that can be mapped to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). | If time stamps are not consistently applied and there is no common time reference, it is difficult to perform forensic analysis.
Time stamps generated by the VMM include date and time. Time is... |
| V-207467 | Medium | The VMM must enforce dual authorization for movement and/or deletion of all audit information, when such movement or deletion is not part of an authorized automatic process. | An authorized user may intentionally or accidentally move or delete audit records without those specific actions being authorized.
All bulk manipulation of audit information must be via... |
| V-207464 | Medium | The VMM must synchronize internal information system clocks to the authoritative time source when the time difference is greater than one second. | 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... |
| V-207465 | Medium | The VMM must record time stamps for audit records that meet a granularity of one second for a minimum degree of precision. | Without sufficient granularity of time stamps, it is not possible to adequately determine the chronological order of records.
Time stamps generated by the VMM include date and time. Granularity... |
| V-207462 | Medium | The VMM that provides a report generation capability must not alter original content or time ordering of audit records. | If the report generation capability alters the content or time ordering of audit records, the integrity of the audit records is compromised, and the records are no longer usable for forensic... |
| V-207463 | Medium | The VMM must, for networked systems, compare internal information system clocks at least every 24 hours with a server which is synchronized to one of the redundant United States Naval Observatory (USNO) time servers or a time server designated for the appropriate DOD network (NIPRNet/SIPRNet), and/or the Global Positioning System (GPS). | 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... |
| V-207460 | Medium | The VMM must provide a report generation capability that supports after-the-fact investigations of security incidents. | If the report generation capability does not support after-the-fact investigations, it is difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events leading up to an outage or attack or... |
| V-207461 | Medium | The VMM that provides an audit reduction capability must not alter original content or time ordering of audit records. | If the audit reduction capability alters the content or time ordering of audit records, the integrity of the audit records is compromised, and the records are no longer usable for forensic... |
| V-207468 | Medium | The VMM must prohibit user installation of software without explicit privileged status. | Allowing regular users to install software or guest VMs, without explicit privileges, creates the risk that untested or potentially malicious software will be installed on the VMM. Explicit... |
| V-207469 | Medium | The VMM must notify designated personnel if baseline configurations are changed in an unauthorized manner. | Unauthorized changes to the baseline configuration could make the VMM vulnerable to various attacks or allow unauthorized access to the VMM. Changes to VMM configurations can have unintended side... |
| V-207372 | Medium | The VMM must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one uppercase character be used. | 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... |
| V-207373 | Medium | The VMM must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one lowercase character be used. | 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... |
| V-207370 | Medium | The VMM, for PKI-based authentication, must enforce authorized access to the corresponding private key. | If the private key is discovered, an attacker can use the key to authenticate as an authorized user and gain access to the network infrastructure.
The cornerstone of the PKI is the private key... |
| V-207371 | Medium | The VMM must map the authenticated identity to the user or group account for PKI-based authentication. | Without mapping the certificate used to authenticate to the user account, the ability to determine the identity of the individual user or group will not be available for forensic analysis. |
| V-207376 | Medium | The VMM must store only encrypted representations of passwords. | Passwords need to be protected at all times, and encryption is the standard method for protecting passwords. If passwords are not encrypted, they can be plainly read (i.e., clear text) and easily... |
| V-207377 | Medium | The VMM must transmit only encrypted representations of passwords. | Passwords need to be protected at all times, and encryption is the standard method for protecting passwords. If passwords are not encrypted, they can be plainly read (i.e., clear text) and easily... |
| V-207374 | Medium | The VMM must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one numeric character be used. | 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... |
| V-207375 | Medium | The VMM must require the change of at least eight of the total number of characters when passwords are changed. | If the VMM allows the user to consecutively reuse extensive portions of passwords, this increases the chances of password compromise by increasing the window of opportunity for attempts at... |
| V-207471 | Medium | The VMM must audit the enforcement actions used to restrict access associated with changes to the system. | Without auditing the enforcement of access restrictions against changes to the VMM configuration, it will be difficult to identify attempted attacks, and an audit trail will not be available for... |
| V-207470 | Medium | The VMM must enforce access restrictions associated with changes to the system. | Failure to provide logical access restrictions associated with changes to system configuration may have significant effects on the overall security of the system.
When dealing with access... |
| V-207378 | Medium | The VMM must enforce 24 hours/one day as the minimum password lifetime. | Enforcing a minimum password lifetime helps to prevent repeated password changes to defeat the password reuse or history enforcement requirement. If users are allowed to immediately and... |
| V-207379 | Medium | The VMM must enforce a 60-day maximum password lifetime restriction. | Any password, no matter how complex, can eventually be cracked. Therefore, passwords need to be changed periodically. If the VMM does not limit the lifetime of passwords and force users to change... |
| V-207475 | Medium | The VMM must employ a deny-all, permit-by-exception policy to allow the execution of authorized software programs and guest VMs. | Utilizing a whitelist provides a configuration management method for allowing the execution of only authorized software and guest VMs. Using only authorized software decreases risk by limiting the... |
| V-207474 | Medium | The VMM must prevent inappropriate use of redundant guest VMs. | Control of program execution is a mechanism used to prevent execution of unauthorized programs. Some VMMs may provide a capability that runs counter to the mission or provides users with... |
| V-207360 | Medium | The VMM must support the capability to centrally review and analyze audit records from multiple components within the system. | Successful incident response and auditing relies on timely, accurate system information and analysis in order to allow the organization to identify and respond to potential incidents in a... |
| V-207365 | Medium | The VMM must protect audit information from unauthorized deletion. | If audit data were to become compromised, then forensic analysis and discovery of the true source of potentially malicious system activity is impossible to achieve.
To ensure the veracity of... |
| V-207364 | Medium | The VMM must protect audit information from unauthorized modification. | If audit data were to become compromised, then forensic analysis and discovery of the true source of potentially malicious system activity is impossible to achieve.
To ensure the veracity of... |
| V-207367 | Medium | The VMM must allow only the ISSM (or individuals or roles appointed by the ISSM) to select which auditable events are to be audited. | Without the capability to restrict which roles and individuals can select which events are audited, unauthorized personnel may be able to prevent the auditing of critical events. Misconfigured... |
| V-207366 | Medium | The VMM must provide audit record generation capability for DoD-defined auditable events for all VMM components. | Without the capability to generate audit records, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an incident or identify those responsible for one.
Audit... |
| V-207361 | Medium | The VMM must support the capability to filter audit records for events of interest based upon all audit fields within audit records. | The ability to specify the event criteria that are of interest provides the individuals reviewing the logs with the ability to quickly isolate and identify these events without having to review... |
| V-207409 | Medium | The VMM must check the validity of all data inputs except those specifically identified by the organization. | Invalid user input occurs when a user inserts data or characters into data entry fields and the VMM is unprepared to process that data. This results in unanticipated VMM behavior, potentially... |
| V-207363 | Medium | The VMM must protect audit information from unauthorized read access. | If audit data were to become compromised, then competent forensic analysis and discovery of the true source of potentially malicious system activity is difficult to achieve. To ensure the... |
| V-207362 | Medium | The VMM must use internal system clocks to generate time stamps for audit records. | Without an internal clock used as the reference for the time stored on each event to provide a trusted common reference for the time, forensic analysis would be impeded. Determining the correct... |
| V-207404 | Medium | The VMM must manage excess capacity, bandwidth, or other redundancy to limit the effects of information-flooding types of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. | 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... |
| V-207405 | Medium | The VMM must terminate all network connections associated with a communications session at the end of the session, or as follows: for in-band management sessions (privileged sessions), the session must be terminated after 10 minutes of inactivity; and for user sessions (non-privileged session), the session must be terminated after 15 minutes of inactivity, except to fulfill documented and validated mission requirements. | 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... |
| V-207406 | Medium | The VMM must fail to a secure state if system initialization fails, shutdown fails, or aborts fail. | Failure to a known safe state helps prevent systems from failing to a state that may cause loss of data or unauthorized access to system resources. VMMs that fail suddenly and with no incorporated... |
| V-207407 | Medium | The VMM must protect the confidentiality and integrity of all information at rest. | Information at rest refers to the state of information when it is located on a secondary storage device (e.g., disk drive and tape drive, when used for backups) within a VMM.
This requirement... |
| V-207369 | Medium | The VMM, for PKI-based authentication, must validate certificates by constructing a certification path (which includes status information) to an accepted trust anchor. | Without path validation, an informed trust decision by the relying party cannot be made when presented with any certificate not already explicitly trusted.
A trust anchor is an authoritative... |
| V-207401 | Medium | The VMM must separate user functionality (including user interface services) from VMM management functionality. | VMM management functionality includes functions necessary for administration and requires privileged user access. Allowing non-privileged users to access VMM management functionality capabilities... |
| V-207402 | Medium | The VMM must isolate security functions from non-security functions. | An isolation boundary provides access control and protects the integrity of the hardware, software, and firmware that perform security functions.
Security functions are the hardware, software,... |
| V-207368 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records when successful/unsuccessful attempts to access privileges occur. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207403 | Medium | The VMM must prevent unauthorized and unintended information transfer via shared system resources. | Preventing unauthorized information transfers mitigates the risk of information, including encrypted representations of information, produced by the actions of prior users/roles (or the actions... |
| V-207484 | Medium | The VMM must authenticate all endpoint devices before establishing a local, remote, and/or network connection using bidirectional authentication that is cryptographically based. | Without authenticating devices, unidentified or unknown devices may be introduced, thereby facilitating malicious activity. Bidirectional authentication provides stronger safeguards to validate... |
| V-207486 | Medium | The VMM must prohibit the use of cached authenticators after one day. | If cached authentication information is out of date, the validity of the authentication information may be questionable. |
| V-207487 | Medium | The VMM, for PKI-based authentication, must implement a local cache of revocation data to support path discovery and validation in case of the inability to access revocation information via the network. | Without configuring a local cache of revocation data, there is the potential to allow access to users who are no longer authorized (users with revoked certificates). |
| V-207480 | Medium | The VMM must implement multifactor authentication for remote access to privileged accounts such that one of the factors is provided by a device separate from the system gaining access. | Using an authentication device, such as a CAC or token that is separate from the VMM, ensures that even if the VMM is compromised, that compromise will not affect credentials stored on the... |
| V-207481 | Medium | The VMM must accept Personal Identity Verification (PIV) credentials. | The use of PIV credentials facilitates standardization and reduces the risk of unauthorized access.
DoD has mandated the use of the CAC to support identity management and personal authentication... |
| V-207482 | Medium | The VMM must electronically verify Personal Identity Verification (PIV) credentials. | The use of PIV credentials facilitates standardization and reduces the risk of unauthorized access.
DoD has mandated the use of the CAC to support identity management and personal authentication... |
| V-207483 | Medium | The VMM must authenticate peripherals before establishing a connection. | Without authenticating devices, unidentified or unknown devices may be introduced, thereby facilitating malicious activity.
Peripherals include, but are not limited to, such devices as flash... |
| V-207488 | Medium | The VMM must implement NSA-approved cryptography to protect classified information in accordance with applicable federal laws, Executive Orders, directives, policies, regulations, and standards. | Use of weak or untested encryption algorithms undermines the purposes of utilizing encryption to protect data. The VMM must implement cryptographic modules adhering to the higher standards... |
| V-207489 | Medium | The VMM must request data origin authentication verification on the name/address resolution responses the system receives from authoritative sources. | If data origin authentication and data integrity verification is not performed, the resultant response could be forged, it may have come from a poisoned cache, the packets could have been... |
| V-264322 | Medium | The VMM must accept only external credentials that are NIST-compliant. | Acceptance of only NIST-compliant external authenticators applies to organizational systems that are accessible to the public (e.g., public-facing websites). External authenticators are issued by... |
| V-264323 | Medium | The VMM must monitor the use of maintenance tools that execute with increased privilege. | Maintenance tools that execute with increased system privilege can result in unauthorized access to organizational information and assets that would otherwise be inaccessible. |
| V-264320 | Medium | The VMM must for password-based authentication, allow user selection of long passwords and passphrases, including spaces and all printable characters. | Password-based authentication applies to passwords regardless of whether they are used in single-factor or multifactor authentication. Long passwords or passphrases are preferable over shorter... |
| V-264321 | Medium | The VMM must for password-based authentication, employ automated tools to assist the user in selecting strong password authenticators. | Password-based authentication applies to passwords regardless of whether they are used in single-factor or multifactor authentication. Long passwords or passphrases are preferable over shorter... |
| V-264326 | Medium | The VMM must synchronize system clocks within and between systems or system components. | Time synchronization of system clocks is essential for the correct execution of many system services, including identification and authentication processes that involve certificates and... |
| V-264327 | Medium | The VMM must employ automated patch management tools to facilitate flaw remediation to the organization-defined system components. | Using automated tools to support patch management helps to ensure the timeliness and completeness of system patching operations. |
| V-264324 | Medium | The VMM must include only approved trust anchors in trust stores or certificate stores managed by the organization. | Public key infrastructure (PKI) certificates are certificates with visibility external to organizational systems and certificates related to the internal operations of systems, such as... |
| V-264325 | Medium | The VMM must provide protected storage for cryptographic keys with organization-defined safeguards and/or hardware protected key store. | A Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is an example of a hardware-protected data store that can be used to protect cryptographic keys. |
| V-207419 | Medium | The VMM must initiate session audits at system startup. | If auditing is enabled late in the startup process, the actions of some start-up processes may not be audited. Some audit systems also maintain state information only available if auditing is... |
| V-207418 | Medium | The VMM must implement cryptography to protect the integrity of remote access sessions. | Without cryptographic integrity protections, information can be altered by unauthorized users without detection.
Remote access (e.g., RDP) is access to DoD nonpublic VMMs by an authorized user... |
| V-207417 | Medium | All interactions between guest VMs and external systems, via other interface devices, must be mediated by the VMM or its service VMs. | Mechanisms to detect and prevent unauthorized communication flow must be configured or provided as part of the VMM design. If information flow control is not enforced based on proper functioning... |
| V-207416 | Medium | All guest VM network communications must be implemented through use of virtual network devices provisioned by the VMM. | Mechanisms to detect and prevent unauthorized communication flow must be configured or provided as part of the VMM design. If information flow control is not enforced based on proper functioning... |
| V-207415 | Medium | The VMM must automatically audit account removal actions. | When VMM accounts are removed, user accessibility is affected. Once an attacker establishes access to a system, the attacker often attempts to disable authorized accounts to disrupt services or... |
| V-207414 | Medium | The VMM must automatically audit account disabling actions. | When VMM accounts are disabled, user accessibility is affected. Once an attacker establishes access to a system, the attacker often attempts to disable authorized accounts to disrupt services or... |
| V-207413 | Medium | The VMM must automatically audit account modification. | Once an attacker establishes access to a system, the attacker often attempts to create a persistent method of reestablishing access. One way to accomplish this is for the attacker to modify an... |
| V-207412 | Medium | All interactions among guest VMs must be mediated by the VMM or its service VMs to support proper function. | Mechanisms to detect and prevent unauthorized communication flow must be configured or provided as part of the VMM design. If information flow control is not enforced based on proper functioning... |
| V-207411 | Medium | The VMM must reveal system error messages only to authorized users. | Only authorized personnel should be aware of errors and the details of the errors. Error messages are an indicator of an organization's operational state or can identify the VMM or platform.... |
| V-207410 | Medium | The VMM must generate error messages that provide information necessary for corrective actions without revealing information that could be exploited by adversaries. | Any VMM providing too much information in error messages risks compromising the data and security of the structure, and content of error messages needs to be carefully considered by the... |
| V-207396 | Medium | The VMM must use mechanisms meeting the requirements of applicable federal laws, Executive Orders, directives, policies, regulations, standards, and guidance for authentication to a cryptographic module. | Unapproved mechanisms that are used for authentication to the cryptographic module are not verified and therefore cannot be relied upon to provide confidentiality or integrity, and DoD data may be... |
| V-207519 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records for privileged activities or other system-level access. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207397 | Medium | The VMM must support an audit reduction capability that supports on-demand reporting requirements. | The ability to generate on-demand reports, including after the audit data has been subjected to audit reduction, greatly facilitates the organization's ability to generate incident reports as... |
| V-207398 | Medium | The VMM must automatically remove or disable emergency accounts after the crisis is resolved or 72 hours. | Emergency accounts are privileged accounts that are established in response to crisis situations where the need for rapid account activation is required. Therefore, emergency account activation... |
| V-207399 | Medium | The VMM must employ strong authenticators in the establishment of nonlocal maintenance and diagnostic sessions. | If maintenance tools are used by unauthorized personnel, they may accidentally or intentionally damage or compromise the system. The act of managing systems and applications includes the ability... |
| V-207495 | Medium | The VMM must implement cryptographic mechanisms to prevent unauthorized disclosure of all information at rest on all VMM components. | VMMs handling data requiring "data at rest" protections must employ cryptographic mechanisms to prevent unauthorized disclosure of the information at rest.
Selection of a cryptographic mechanism... |
| V-207494 | Medium | The VMM must implement cryptographic mechanisms to prevent unauthorized modification of all information at rest on all VMM components. | VMMs handling data requiring "data at rest" protections must employ cryptographic mechanisms to prevent unauthorized modification of the information at rest.
Selection of a cryptographic... |
| V-207493 | Medium | The VMM must only allow the use of DoD PKI-established certificate authorities for verification of the establishment of protected sessions. | 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... |
| V-207492 | Medium | The VMM must perform data origin verification authentication on the name/address resolution responses the system receives from authoritative sources. | If data origin authentication and data integrity verification are not performed, the resultant response could be forged, it may have come from a poisoned cache, the packets could have been... |
| V-207491 | Medium | The VMM must perform data integrity verification on the name/address resolution responses the system receives from authoritative sources. | If data origin authentication and data integrity verification are not performed, the resultant response could be forged, it may have come from a poisoned cache, the packets could have been... |
| V-207490 | Medium | The VMM must request data integrity verification on the name/address resolution responses the system receives from authoritative sources. | If data origin authentication and data integrity verification is not performed, the resultant response could be forged, it may have come from a poisoned cache, the packets could have been... |
| V-207390 | Medium | The VMM must use multifactor authentication for local access to nonprivileged accounts. | To assure accountability, prevent unauthenticated access, and prevent misuse of the system, privileged users must utilize multifactor authentication for local access.
Multifactor authentication... |
| V-207391 | Medium | The VMM must require individuals to be authenticated with an individual authenticator prior to using a group authenticator. | To assure individual accountability and prevent unauthorized access, organizational users shall be individually identified and authenticated.
A group authenticator is a generic account used by... |
| V-207392 | Medium | The VMM must implement replay-resistant authentication mechanisms for network access to privileged accounts. | A replay attack may enable an unauthorized user to gain access to the VMM. Authentication sessions between the authenticator and the VMM validating the user credentials must not be vulnerable to a... |
| V-207393 | Medium | The VMM must implement replay-resistant authentication mechanisms for network access to nonprivileged accounts. | A replay attack may enable an unauthorized user to gain access to the VMM. Authentication sessions between the authenticator and the VMM validating the user credentials must not be vulnerable to a... |
| V-207394 | Medium | The VMM must uniquely identify peripherals before establishing a connection. | Without identifying devices, unidentified or unknown devices may be introduced, thereby facilitating malicious activity.
Peripherals include, but are not limited to, such devices as flash drives,... |
| V-207395 | Medium | The VMM must disable local account identifiers (individuals, groups, roles, and devices) after 35 days of inactivity. | Inactive identifiers pose a risk to systems and applications because attackers may exploit an inactive identifier and potentially obtain undetected access to the system. Owners of inactive... |
| V-207499 | Medium | The VMM must protect the confidentiality and integrity of transmitted information. | Without protection of the transmitted information, confidentiality and integrity may be compromised as unprotected communications can be intercepted and either read or altered.
This requirement... |
| V-207498 | Medium | The VMM must protect against or limit the effects of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks by ensuring the VMM is implementing rate-limiting measures on impacted network interfaces. | 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.
This... |
| V-207473 | Medium | The VMM must prevent use of service and helper VMs not required to support proper VMM function. | Control of program execution is a mechanism used to prevent execution of unauthorized programs. Some VMMs may provide a capability that runs counter to the mission or provides users with... |
| V-207422 | Medium | The VMM must protect audit tools from unauthorized modification. | Protecting audit data also includes identifying and protecting the tools used to view and manipulate log data. Therefore, protecting audit tools is necessary to prevent unauthorized operation on... |
| V-207423 | Medium | The VMM must protect audit tools from unauthorized deletion. | Protecting audit data also includes identifying and protecting the tools used to view and manipulate log data. Therefore, protecting audit tools is necessary to prevent unauthorized operation on... |
| V-207420 | Medium | The VMM must produce audit records containing information to establish the identity of any individual or process associated with the event. | Without information that establishes the identity of the subjects (i.e., users or processes acting on behalf of users) associated with the events, security personnel cannot determine... |
| V-207472 | Medium | The VMM must prevent the installation of guest VMs, patches, service packs, device drivers, or VMM components without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is recognized and approved by the organization. | Changes to any software components can have significant effects on the overall security of the VMM. This requirement ensures the software has not been tampered with and that it has been provided... |
| V-207426 | Medium | In the event of a system failure, the VMM must preserve any information necessary to determine cause of failure and any information necessary to return to operations with least disruption to mission processes. | Failure to a known state can address safety or security in accordance with the mission/business needs of the organization. Failure to a known secure state helps prevent a loss of confidentiality,... |
| V-207427 | Medium | The VMM must notify system administrators (SAs) and information system security officers (ISSOs) when accounts are created. | Once an attacker establishes initial access to a system, the attacker often attempts to create a persistent method of reestablishing access. One way to accomplish this is for the attacker to... |
| V-207424 | Medium | The VMM must limit privileges to change software resident within software libraries. | If the VMM were to allow any user to make changes to software libraries, then those changes might be implemented without undergoing the appropriate testing and approvals that are part of a robust... |
| V-207425 | Medium | The VMM must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used. | 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... |
| V-207428 | Medium | The VMM must notify the system administrator (SA) and information system security officer (ISSO) when accounts are modified. | Once an attacker establishes access to a system, the attacker often attempts to create a persistent method of reestablishing access. One way to accomplish this is for the attacker to simply modify... |
| V-207429 | Medium | The VMM must notify the system administrator (SA) and information system security officer (ISSO) when accounts are disabled. | When VMM accounts are disabled, user accessibility is affected. Accounts are utilized for identifying individual VMM users or for identifying the VMM processes themselves. Sending notification of... |
| V-207438 | Medium | The VMM must protect wireless access to the system using authentication of users and/or devices. | Allowing devices and users to connect to the system without first authenticating them allows untrusted access and can lead to a compromise or attack.
Wireless technologies include, for example,... |
| V-207497 | Medium | The VMM must maintain a separate execution domain for each guest VM. | VMMs can maintain separate execution domains for each executing guest VM by assigning each guest VM a separate address space. Each VMM guest VM has a distinct address space so that communication... |
| V-207389 | Medium | The VMM must use multifactor authentication for local access to privileged accounts. | To assure accountability and prevent unauthenticated access, privileged users must utilize multifactor authentication to prevent potential misuse and compromise of the system.
Multifactor... |
| V-207388 | Medium | The VMM must use multifactor authentication for network access to non-privileged accounts. | To assure accountability and prevent unauthenticated access, non-privileged users must utilize multifactor authentication to prevent potential misuse and compromise of the system.
Multifactor... |
| V-207383 | Medium | The VMM must enforce approved authorizations for logical access to information and system resources in accordance with applicable access control policies. | To mitigate the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive information by entities that have been issued certificates by DoD-approved PKIs, all DoD systems (e.g., networks, web servers, and web... |
| V-207382 | Medium | The VMM must obscure feedback of authentication information during the authentication process to protect the information from possible exploitation/use by unauthorized individuals. | To prevent the compromise of authentication information, such as passwords during the authentication process, the feedback from the VMM shall not provide any information allowing an unauthorized... |
| V-207381 | Medium | The VMM must enforce a minimum 15-character password length. | 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... |
| V-207387 | Medium | The VMM must use multifactor authentication for network access to privileged accounts. | 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... |
| V-207386 | Medium | The VMM must uniquely identify and must authenticate organizational users (or processes acting on behalf of organizational users). | To assure accountability and prevent unauthenticated access, organizational users must be identified and authenticated to prevent potential misuse and compromise of the system.
Organizational... |
| V-207385 | Medium | The VMM must be configured to prohibit or restrict the use of functions, ports, protocols, and/or services, as defined in the PPSM CAL and vulnerability assessments. | In order to prevent unauthorized connection of devices, unauthorized transfer of information, or unauthorized tunneling (i.e., embedding of data types within data types), organizations must... |
| V-207384 | Medium | The VMM must be configured to disable non-essential capabilities. | It is detrimental for VMMs to provide, or install by default, functionality exceeding requirements or mission objectives. These unnecessary capabilities or services are often overlooked and... |
| V-207496 | Medium | The VMM must maintain a separate execution domain for each executing process. | VMMs can maintain separate execution domains for each executing process by assigning each process a separate address space. Each VMM process has a distinct address space so that communication... |
| V-207435 | Medium | The VMM must control remote access methods. | Remote access services, such as those providing remote access to network devices and VMMs, which lack automated control capabilities, increase risk and make remote user access management difficult... |
| V-207434 | Medium | The VMM must display an explicit logout message to users indicating the reliable termination of authenticated communications sessions. | If a user cannot explicitly end a VMM session, the session may remain open and be exploited by an attacker; this is referred to as a zombie session. Users need to be aware of whether or not the... |
| V-207437 | Medium | The VMM must protect wireless access to the system using encryption. | Allowing devices and users to connect to the system without first authenticating them allows untrusted access and can lead to a compromise or attack. Since wireless communications can be... |
| V-207436 | Medium | The VMM must provide the capability to immediately disconnect or disable remote access to the information system. | Without the ability to immediately disconnect or disable remote access, an attack or other compromise taking place would not be immediately stopped.
VMM remote access functionality must have the... |
| V-207431 | Medium | The VMM must use cryptographic mechanisms to protect the integrity of audit tools. | Protecting the integrity of the tools used for auditing purposes is a critical step towards ensuring the integrity of audit data. Audit data includes all information (e.g., audit records, audit... |
| V-207430 | Medium | The VMM must notify the system administrator (SA) and information system security officer (ISSO) when accounts are removed. | When VMM accounts are removed, user accessibility is affected. Accounts are utilized for identifying individual VMM users or for identifying the VMM processes themselves. Sending notification of... |
| V-207433 | Medium | VMMs requiring user access authentication must provide a logout capability for user-initiated communications sessions. | If a user cannot explicitly end a VMM session, the session may remain open and be exploited by an attacker; this is referred to as a zombie session.
Information resources to which users gain... |
| V-207504 | Medium | The VMM must implement address space layout randomization to protect its memory from unauthorized code execution. | Some adversaries launch attacks with the intent of executing code in non-executable regions of memory or in memory locations that are prohibited. Data execution prevention safeguards can either be... |
| V-207439 | Medium | The VMM must automatically audit account enabling actions. | Once an attacker establishes access to a system, the attacker often attempts to create a persistent method of reestablishing access. One way to accomplish this is for the attacker to simply enable... |
| V-207507 | Medium | The VMM must perform verification of the correct operation of security functions: upon system startup and/or restart; upon command by a user with privileged access; and/or every 30 days. | Without verification of the security functions, security functions may not operate correctly and the failure may go unnoticed. Security function is defined as the hardware, software, and/or... |
| V-207421 | Medium | The VMM must protect audit tools from unauthorized access. | Protecting audit data also includes identifying and protecting the tools used to view and manipulate log data. Therefore, protecting audit tools is necessary to prevent unauthorized operation on... |
| V-207338 | Medium | The VMM must provide automated mechanisms for supporting account management functions. | Enterprise environments make account management challenging and complex. A manual process for account management functions adds the risk of a potential oversight or other error.
A comprehensive... |
| V-207339 | Medium | The VMM must automatically remove or disable local temporary user accounts after 72 hours. | If temporary user accounts remain active when no longer needed or for an excessive period, these accounts may be used to gain unauthorized access. To mitigate this risk, automated termination of... |
| V-207503 | Medium | The VMM must implement non-executable data to protect its memory from unauthorized code execution. | Some adversaries launch attacks with the intent of executing code in non-executable regions of memory or in memory locations that are prohibited. Data execution prevention safeguards can either be... |
| V-264318 | Medium | The VMM must for password-based authentication, verify when users create or update passwords the passwords are not found on the list of commonly-used, expected, or compromised passwords in ia-5 (1) (a). | Password-based authentication applies to passwords regardless of whether they are used in single-factor or multifactor authentication. Long passwords or passphrases are preferable over shorter... |
| V-207502 | Medium | The VMM must behave in a predictable and documented manner that reflects organizational and system objectives when invalid inputs are received. | A common vulnerability of VMM is unpredictable behavior when invalid inputs are received. This requirement guards against adverse or unintended system behavior caused by invalid inputs, where VMM... |
| V-207529 | Medium | The VMM must protect the confidentiality and integrity of communications with wireless peripherals. | Without protection of communications with wireless peripherals, confidentiality and integrity may be compromised because unprotected communications can be intercepted and either read, altered, or... |
| V-207528 | Medium | The VMM must be configured in accordance with the security configuration settings based on DoD security configuration or implementation guidance, including STIGs, NSA configuration guides, CTOs, and DTMs. | Configuring the VMM to implement organization-wide security implementation guides and security checklists ensures compliance with federal standards and establishes a common security baseline... |
| V-207527 | Medium | The VMM must, at a minimum, off-load interconnected systems in real time and off-load standalone systems weekly. | Information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration.
Off-loading is a common process in VMMs with limited audit storage capacity. |
| V-207526 | Medium | The VMM must implement NIST FIPS-validated cryptography for the following: to provision digital signatures; to generate cryptographic hashes; and to protect unclassified information requiring confidentiality and cryptographic protection in accordance with applicable federal laws, Executive Orders, directives, policies, regulations, and standards. | Use of weak or untested encryption algorithms undermines the purposes of utilizing encryption to protect data. The VMM must implement cryptographic modules adhering to the higher standards... |
| V-207525 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records for all module load, unload, and restart actions, and also for all program and guest VM initiations. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207524 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records for all account creations, modifications, disabling, and termination events. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207523 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records for all direct access to the VMM. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207522 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records when successful/unsuccessful accesses to objects occur. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207521 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records when concurrent logons from different workstations occur. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207520 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records showing starting and ending time for user access to the system. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-207440 | Medium | The VMM must notify the system administrator (SA) and information system security officer (ISSO) of account enabling actions. | Once an attacker establishes access to a system, the attacker often attempts to create a persistent method of reestablishing access. One way to accomplish this is for the attacker to simply enable... |
| V-207441 | Medium | The VMM must implement discretionary access controls to allow VMM admins to pass information to any other VMM admin, user, or guest VM. | Discretionary Access Control (DAC) is based on the notion that individual users are "owners" of objects and therefore have discretion over who should be authorized to access the object and in... |
| V-207442 | Medium | The VMM must implement discretionary access controls to allow VMM admins to grant their privileges to other VMM admins. | Discretionary Access Control (DAC) is based on the notion that individual users are "owners" of objects and therefore have discretion over who should be authorized to access the object and in... |
| V-207443 | Medium | The VMM must implement discretionary access controls to allow VMM admins to change security attributes on users, guest VMs, the VMM, or the VMMs components. | Discretionary Access Control (DAC) is based on the notion that individual users are "owners" of objects and therefore have discretion over who should be authorized to access the object and in... |
| V-207444 | Medium | The VMM must implement discretionary access controls to allow VMM admins to choose the security attributes to be associated with newly created or revised guest VMs. | Discretionary Access Control (DAC) is based on the notion that individual users are "owners" of objects and therefore have discretion over who should be authorized to access the object and in... |
| V-207445 | Medium | The VMM must prevent non-privileged users from executing privileged functions to include disabling, circumventing, or altering implemented security safeguards/countermeasures. | Preventing non-privileged users from executing privileged functions mitigates the risk that unauthorized individuals or processes may gain unnecessary access to information or... |
| V-207446 | Medium | The VMM must prevent all software from executing at higher privilege levels than users executing the software. | In certain situations, guest VMs, applications, and programs need to execute with elevated privileges to perform required functions. However, if the privileges required for execution are at a... |
| V-207447 | Medium | The VMM must audit the execution of privileged functions. | Misuse of privileged functions, either intentionally or unintentionally, by authorized users, or by unauthorized external entities that have compromised VMM accounts, is a serious and ongoing... |
| V-207448 | Medium | The VMM must automatically lock an account until the locked account is released by an administrator, when three unsuccessful logon attempts in 15 minutes are made. | By limiting the number of failed logon 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. |
| V-207449 | Medium | The VMM must provide the capability for assigned IMOs/ISSOs or designated SAs to change the auditing to be performed on all VMM components, based on all selectable event criteria in near real time. | If authorized individuals do not have the ability to modify auditing parameters in response to a changing threat environment, the organization may not be able to effectively respond, and important... |
| V-207508 | Medium | The VMM must shut down, restart, and/or notify the system administrator when anomalies in the operation of any security functions are discovered. | If anomalies are not acted upon, security functions may fail to secure the system.
Security function is defined as the hardware, software, and/or firmware of the VMM responsible for enforcing... |
| V-264317 | Medium | The VMM must implement multifactor authentication for local, network, and/or remote access to privileged accounts and/or nonprivileged accounts such that the device meets organization-defined strength of mechanism requirements. | The purpose of requiring a device separate from the system to which the user is attempting to gain access for one of the factors during multifactor authentication is to reduce the likelihood of... |
| V-207509 | Medium | The VMM must generate audit records when successful/unsuccessful attempts to access security objects occur. | Without generating audit records that are specific to the security and mission needs of the organization, it would be difficult to establish, correlate, and investigate the events relating to an... |
| V-264319 | Medium | The VMM must for password-based authentication, require immediate selection of a new password upon account recovery. | Password-based authentication applies to passwords regardless of whether they are used in single-factor or multifactor authentication. Long passwords or passphrases are preferable over shorter... |
