The vCenter Server for Windows must restrict access to cryptographic role.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-216882	VCWN-65-000063	SV-216882r612237_rule		Medium

Description
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 must be reserved for cryptographic administrators where VM encryption and/or vSAN encryption is in use. A new built-in role called "No Cryptography Administrator" has been added 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 a poorly administered cryptography.

Description

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 must be reserved for cryptographic administrators where VM encryption and/or vSAN encryption is in use. A new built-in role called "No Cryptography Administrator" has been added 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 a poorly administered cryptography.

STIG	Date
VMW vSphere 6.5 vCenter Server for Windows Security Technical Implementation Guide	2021-06-23

Details

Check Text ( C-18113r366360_chk )
From the vSphere Web Client go to Administration >> Access Control >> Roles or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the vCenter server run the following command: Get-VIPermission \| Where {$_.Role -eq "Admin"} \| Select Role,Principal,Entity,Propagate,IsGroup \| FT -Auto If there are any users other than Solution Users with the "Administrator" role that are not explicitly designated for cryptographic operations, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-18113r366360_chk )

From the vSphere Web Client go to Administration >> Access Control >> Roles

or

From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the vCenter server run the following command:
Get-VIPermission | Where {$_.Role -eq "Admin"} | Select Role,Principal,Entity,Propagate,IsGroup | FT -Auto

If there are any users other than Solution Users with the "Administrator" role that are not explicitly designated for cryptographic operations, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-18111r366361_fix)
From the vSphere Web Client go to Administration >> Access Control >> Roles Move any accounts not explicitly designated for cryptographic operations, other than Solution Users, to other roles such as "No Cryptography Administrator".