vSphere UI must set URIEncoding to UTF-8.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-239700	VCUI-67-000019	SV-239700r679206_rule		Medium

Description
Invalid user input occurs when a user inserts data or characters into a hosted application's data entry field and the hosted application is unprepared to process that data. This results in unanticipated application behavior, potentially leading to an application compromise. Invalid user input is one of the primary methods employed when attempting to compromise an application. An attacker can also enter Unicode characters into hosted applications in an effort to break out of the document home or root home directory or to bypass security checks. vSphere UI must be configured to use a consistent character set via the URIEncoding attribute on the Connector nodes.

Description

Invalid user input occurs when a user inserts data or characters into a hosted application's data entry field and the hosted application is unprepared to process that data. This results in unanticipated application behavior, potentially leading to an application compromise. Invalid user input is one of the primary methods employed when attempting to compromise an application. An attacker can also enter Unicode characters into hosted applications in an effort to break out of the document home or root home directory or to bypass security checks. vSphere UI must be configured to use a consistent character set via the URIEncoding attribute on the Connector nodes.

STIG	Date
VMware vSphere 6.7 UI Tomcat Security Technical Implementation Guide	2022-01-03

Details

Check Text ( C-42933r679204_chk )
At the command prompt, execute the following command: # xmllint --format /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-ui/server/conf/server.xml \| sed '2 s/xmlns=".*"//g' \| xmllint --xpath '/Server/Service/Connector[@port="${http.port}"]/@URIEncoding' - Expected result: URIEncoding="UTF-8" If the output does not match the expected result, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-42892r679205_fix)
Navigate to and open /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-ui/server/conf/server.xml. Navigate to each of the nodes. Configure each node with the value 'URIEncoding="UTF-8"'.