vSphere UI must be configured to show error pages with minimal information.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-239704	VCUI-67-000023	SV-239704r679218_rule		Medium

Description
Web servers will often display error messages to client users with enough information to aid in the debugging of the error. The information given back in error messages may display the web server type, version, patches installed, plug-ins and modules installed, type of code being used by the hosted application, and any backends being used for data storage. This information could be used by an attacker to blueprint what type of attacks might be successful. Therefore, vSphere UI must be configured to not show server version information in error pages.

Description

Web servers will often display error messages to client users with enough information to aid in the debugging of the error. The information given back in error messages may display the web server type, version, patches installed, plug-ins and modules installed, type of code being used by the hosted application, and any backends being used for data storage. This information could be used by an attacker to blueprint what type of attacks might be successful. Therefore, vSphere UI must be configured to not show server version information in error pages.

STIG	Date
VMware vSphere 6.7 UI Tomcat Security Technical Implementation Guide	2021-04-15

Details

Check Text ( C-42937r679216_chk )
At the command prompt, execute the following command: # xmllint --format /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-ui/server/conf/server.xml \| xmllint --xpath '/Server/Service/Engine/Host/Valve[@className="org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve"]' - Expected result: If the output of the command does not match the expected result, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-42896r679217_fix)
Navigate to and open /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-ui/server/conf/server.xml. Locate the following Host block: ... Inside this block, add the following on a new line: