| V-216849 | High | The vCenter Server for Windows must minimize access to the vCenter server. | After someone has logged in to the vCenter Server system, it becomes more difficult to prevent what they can do. In general, logging in to the vCenter Server system should be limited to very... |
| V-216836 | High | The vCenter Server for Windows must set the distributed port group MAC Address Change policy to reject. | 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... |
| V-216888 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must use a limited privilege account when adding an LDAP identity source. | When adding an LDAP identity source to vSphere SSO the account used to bind to AD must be minimally privileged. This account only requires read rights to the base DN specified. Any other... |
| V-216889 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must disable SNMPv1. | SNMPv3 supports commercial-grade security, including authentication, authorization, access control, and privacy while previous versions of the protocol contained well-known security weaknesses... |
| V-216859 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows passwords must be at least 15 characters in 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-216882 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must restrict access to cryptographic role. | vSphere 6.5 modifies the built-in "Administrator" role to add permission to perform cryptographic operations such as KMS operations and encrypting and decrypting virtual machine disks. This role... |
| V-216883 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must restrict access to cryptographic permissions. | These permissions must be reserved for cryptographic administrators where VM encryption and/or vSAN encryption is in use. Catastrophic data loss can result from a poorly administered cryptography. |
| V-216855 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must use a least-privileges assignment for the vCenter Server database user. | Least-privileges mitigates attacks if the vCenter database account is compromised. vCenter requires very specific privileges on the database. Privileges normally required only for installation and... |
| V-216854 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must use a least-privileges assignment for the Update Manager database user. | Least-privileges mitigate attacks if the Update Manager database account is compromised. The VMware Update Manager requires certain privileges for the database user in order to install, and the... |
| V-216857 | Medium | vCenter Server for Windows plugins must be verified. | 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... |
| V-216856 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must use unique service accounts when applications connect to vCenter. | In order to not violate non-repudiation (i.e., deny the authenticity of who is connecting to vCenter), when applications need to connect to vCenter they should use unique service accounts. |
| V-216851 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must enable all tasks to be shown to Administrators in the Web Client. | By default not all tasks are shown in the web client to administrators and only that user's tasks will be shown. Enabling all tasks to be shown will allow the administrator to potentially see any... |
| V-216850 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows Administrators must clean up log files after failed installations. | In certain cases, if the vCenter installation fails, a log file (with a name of the form “hs_err_pidXXXX”) is created that contains the database password in plain text. An attacker who breaks into... |
| V-216852 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows Administrator role must be secured and assigned to specific users other than a Windows Administrator. | By default, vCenter Server grants full administrative rights to the local administrator's account, which can be accessed by domain administrators. Separation of duties dictates that full vCenter... |
| V-216877 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows reverse proxy must use DoD approved certificates. | The default self-signed, 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 assures clients... |
| V-216876 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must enable TLS 1.2 exclusively. | TLS 1.0 and 1.1 are deprecated protocols with well published shortcomings and vulnerabilities. TLS 1.2 should be disabled on all interfaces and TLS 1.1 and 1.0 disabled where supported. Mandating... |
| V-216875 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows users must have the correct roles assigned. | 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,... |
| V-216874 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must configure the vSAN Datastore name to a unique name. | 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... |
| V-216873 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must disable or restrict the connectivity between vSAN Health Check and public Hardware Compatibility List by use of an external proxy server. | The vSAN Health Check is able to download the hardware compatibility list from VMware in order to check compliance against the underlying vSAN Cluster hosts. To ensure the vCenter server is not... |
| V-216872 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must enable the vSAN Health Check. | The vSAN Health Check is used for additional alerting capabilities, performance stress testing prior to production usage, and verifying that the underlying hardware officially is supported by... |
| V-216871 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must protect the confidentiality and integrity of transmitted information by isolating IP-based storage traffic. | Virtual machines might share virtual switches and VLANs with the IP-based storage configurations. IP-based storage includes vSAN, iSCSI, and NFS. This configuration might expose IP-based storage... |
| V-216870 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows users must have the correct roles assigned. | 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,... |
| V-216833 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must limit the use of the built-in SSO administrative account. | Use of the SSO administrator account should be limited as it is a shared account and individual accounts must be used wherever possible. |
| V-216832 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must use Active Directory authentication. | The vCenter Server for Windows must ensure users are authenticated with an individual authenticator prior to using a group authenticator. Using Active Directory for authentication provides more... |
| V-216830 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows 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). | 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-216837 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must set the distributed port group Promiscuous Mode policy to reject. | When promiscuous mode is enabled for a virtual switch all virtual machines connected to the Portgroup have the potential of reading all packets across that network, meaning only the virtual... |
| V-216835 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must set the distributed port group Forged Transmits policy to reject. | If the virtual machine operating system changes the MAC address, the operating system can send frames with an impersonated source MAC address at any time. This allows an operating system to stage... |
| V-216838 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must only send NetFlow traffic to authorized collectors. | 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... |
| V-216887 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must use LDAPS when adding an SSO identity source. | LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is an industry standard protocol for querying directory services such as Active Directory. This protocol can operate in clear text or over an SSL/TLS... |
| V-216829 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows users must have the correct roles assigned. | 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,... |
| V-216846 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must configure the vpxuser password meets length policy. | 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... |
| V-216869 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must alert administrators on permission update operations. | If personnel are not notified of permission events, they will not be aware of possible unsecure situations. |
| V-216842 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must not configure all port groups to VLAN values reserved by upstream physical switches. | 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... |
| V-216843 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must enable SSL for Network File Copy (NFC). | NFC is the mechanism used to migrate or clone a VM between two ESXi hosts over the network. By default, NFC over SSL is enabled (i.e., "True") within a vSphere cluster but the value of the setting... |
| V-216840 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must configure all port groups to a value other than that of the native VLAN. | 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... |
| V-216841 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must configure all port groups to VLAN 4095 unless Virtual Guest Tagging (VGT) is required. | When a port group is set to VLAN 4095, this activates VGT mode. In this mode, the vSwitch passes all network frames to the guest VM without modifying the VLAN tags, leaving it up to the guest to... |
| V-216868 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must alert administrators on permission deletion operations. | If personnel are not notified of permission events, they will not be aware of possible unsecure situations. |
| V-216879 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must enable revocation checking for certificate based authentication. | The system must establish the validity of the user supplied identity certificate using OCSP and/or CRL revocation checking. |
| V-216844 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows services must be ran using a service account instead of a built-in Windows account. | You can use the Microsoft Windows built-in system account or a domain user account to run vCenter Server. The Microsoft Windows built-in system account has more permissions and rights on the... |
| V-216845 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must configure the vpxuser auto-password to be changed every 30 days. | By default, the vpxuser password will be automatically changed by vCenter every 30 days. Ensure this setting meets your policies; if not, configure to meet password aging policies.
Note: It is... |
| V-216864 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must limit the maximum number of failed login attempts to three. | By limiting the number of failed login attempts, the risk of unauthorized access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute-forcing, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account. |
| V-216865 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must set the interval for counting failed login attempts to at least 15 minutes. | By limiting the number of failed login attempts, the risk of unauthorized access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute-forcing, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account. |
| V-216848 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must check the privilege re-assignment after restarts. | Check for privilege reassignment when you restart vCenter Server. If the user or user group that is assigned the Administrator role on the root folder cannot be verified as a valid user or group... |
| V-216867 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must alert administrators on permission creation operations. | If personnel are not notified of permission events, they will not be aware of possible unsecure situations. |
| V-216860 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows passwords must contain at least one uppercase character. | To enforce the use of complex passwords, minimum numbers of characters of different classes are mandated. The use of complex passwords reduces the ability of attackers to successfully obtain valid... |
| V-216861 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows passwords must contain at least one lowercase character. | To enforce the use of complex passwords, minimum numbers of characters of different classes are mandated. The use of complex passwords reduces the ability of attackers to successfully obtain valid... |
| V-216862 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows passwords must contain at least one numeric character. | To enforce the use of complex passwords, minimum numbers of characters of different classes are mandated. The use of complex passwords reduces the ability of attackers to successfully obtain valid... |
| V-216863 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows passwords must contain at least one special character. | To enforce the use of complex passwords, minimum numbers of characters of different classes are mandated. The use of complex passwords reduces the ability of attackers to successfully obtain valid... |
| V-216825 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must prohibit password reuse for a minimum of five generations. | 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 need... |
| V-216826 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must not automatically refresh client sessions. | 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-216827 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows 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 at specific intervals.
One method of minimizing this risk is to use complex passwords and... |
| V-216828 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must terminate management sessions after 10 minutes of inactivity. | 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-216878 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must enable certificate based authentication. | The vCenter 6.5 Web Client portal is capable of CAC authentication. This capability must be enabled and properly configured. |
| V-216866 | Medium | The vCenter Server for Windows must require an administrator to unlock an account locked due to excessive login failures. | By limiting the number of failed login attempts, the risk of unauthorized access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute-forcing, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account. |
| V-216886 | Low | The vCenter Server for Windows must disable the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP). | The VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) sends VMware anonymized system information that is used to improve the quality, reliability, and functionality of VMware products and... |
| V-216884 | Low | The vCenter Server for Windows must have Mutual CHAP configured for vSAN iSCSI targets. | When enabled vSphere performs bidirectional authentication of both the iSCSI target and host. There is a potential for a MitM attack when not authenticating both the iSCSI target and host in which... |
| V-216885 | Low | The vCenter Server for Windows must have new Key Encryption Keys (KEKs) re-issued at regular intervals for vSAN encrypted datastore(s). | The Key Encryption Key (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... |
| V-216880 | Low | The vCenter Server for Windows must disable Password and Windows integrated authentication. | All forms of authentication other than CAC must be disabled. Password authentication can be temporarily re-enabled for emergency access to the local SSO domain accounts but it must be disable as... |
| V-216858 | Low | The vCenter Server for Windows 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. |
| V-216853 | Low | The vCenter Server for Windows must restrict the connectivity between Update Manager and public patch repositories by use of a separate Update Manager Download Server. | The Update Manager Download Service (UMDS) is an optional module of the Update Manager. UMDS downloads upgrades for virtual appliances, patch metadata, patch binaries, and notifications that would... |
| V-216831 | Low | The vCenter Server for Windows must provide an immediate real-time alert to the SA and ISSO, at a minimum, of all audit failure events. | It is critical for the appropriate personnel to be aware if an ESXi host is at risk of failing to process audit logs as required. Without a real-time alert, security personnel may be unaware of an... |
| V-216834 | Low | The vCenter Server for Windows must disable the distributed virtual switch health check. | Network Healthcheck is disabled by default. Once enabled, the healthcheck packets contain information on host#, vds#, port#, which an attacker would find useful. It is recommended that network... |
| V-216839 | Low | The vCenter Server for Windows must not override port group settings at the port level on distributed switches. | 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. There are cases... |
| V-216847 | Low | The vCenter Server for Windows must disable the managed object browser at all times, when not required for the purpose of troubleshooting or maintenance of managed objects. | The managed object browser provides a way to explore the object model used by the vCenter to manage the vSphere environment; it enables configurations to be changed as well. This interface is used... |
| V-216881 | Low | The vCenter Server for Windows must enable Login banner for vSphere web client. | The required legal notice must be configured for the vCenter web client. |
