Inetd and xinetd must be disabled or removed if no network services utilizing them are enabled.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
GEN003700-ESXI5-000077	GEN003700-ESXI5-000077	GEN003700-ESXI5-000077_rule		Medium

Description
Unnecessary services should be disabled to decrease the attack surface of the system.

STIG	Date
VMware ESXi v5 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2013-01-15

Details

Check Text ( C-GEN003700-ESXI5-000077_chk )
Temporarily disable Lockdown Mode and enable the ESXi Shell via the vSphere Client. Open the vSphere/VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client and log in with appropriate credentials. If connecting to vCenter Server, click on the desired host. Click the Configuration tab. Click Software, Security Profile, Services, Properties, ESXi Shell and Options, respectively. Start the ESXi Shell service, where/as required. As root, log in to the ESXi Shell and execute the following: # grep inetd /var/log/syslog.log # cat /var/run/inetd.conf # ps \| grep If inetd is running and no active services are found (i.e., /var/run/inetd.conf does not exist, is empty or is completely commented out), this is a finding. If inetd is not running and /var/run/inetd.conf does not exist, is empty or is completely commented out, this is not a finding. If inetd is running and active services are found via the ps command and are also in the inetd.conf file, this is not a finding. Re-enable Lockdown Mode on the host.

Check Text ( C-GEN003700-ESXI5-000077_chk )

Temporarily disable Lockdown Mode and enable the ESXi Shell via the vSphere Client. Open the vSphere/VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client and log in with appropriate credentials. If connecting to vCenter Server, click on the desired host. Click the Configuration tab. Click Software, Security Profile, Services, Properties, ESXi Shell and Options, respectively. Start the ESXi Shell service, where/as required. As root, log in to the ESXi Shell and execute the following:
# grep inetd /var/log/syslog.log
# cat /var/run/inetd.conf
# ps | grep

If inetd is running and no active services are found (i.e., /var/run/inetd.conf does not exist, is empty or is completely commented out), this is a finding.

If inetd is not running and /var/run/inetd.conf does not exist, is empty or is completely commented out, this is not a finding.

If inetd is running and active services are found via the ps command and are also in the inetd.conf file, this is not a finding.

Re-enable Lockdown Mode on the host.

Fix Text (F-GEN003700-ESXI5-000077_fix)
Temporarily disable Lockdown Mode and enable the ESXi Shell via the vSphere Client. Open the vSphere/VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client and log in with appropriate credentials. If connecting to vCenter Server, click on the desired host. Click the Configuration tab. Click Software, Security Profile, Services, Properties, ESXi Shell and Options, respectively. Start the ESXi Shell service, where/as required. As root, log in to the ESXi Shell and view the syslog.log entries. # grep inetd /var/log/syslog.log Delete or zero the /var/run/inetd.conf file if inetd is not running. Re-enable Lockdown Mode on the host.

Fix Text (F-GEN003700-ESXI5-000077_fix)