The ESXi host Secure Shell (SSH) daemon must be configured to not allow gateway ports.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-256391	ESXI-70-000022	SV-256391r885954_rule		Low

Description
SSH Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection forwarding provides a mechanism to establish TCP connections proxied by the SSH server. This function can provide convenience similar to a virtual private network (VPN) with the similar risk of providing a path to circumvent firewalls and network Access Control Lists (ACLs). Gateway ports allow remote forwarded ports to bind to nonloopback addresses on the server.

Description

SSH Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection forwarding provides a mechanism to establish TCP connections proxied by the SSH server. This function can provide convenience similar to a virtual private network (VPN) with the similar risk of providing a path to circumvent firewalls and network Access Control Lists (ACLs). Gateway ports allow remote forwarded ports to bind to nonloopback addresses on the server.

STIG	Date
VMware vSphere 7.0 ESXi Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-06-21

Details

Check Text ( C-60066r885952_chk )
From an ESXi shell, run the following command: # /usr/lib/vmware/openssh/bin/sshd -T\|grep gatewayports Expected result: gatewayports no If the output does not match the expected result, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-60009r885953_fix)
From an ESXi shell, add or correct the following line in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config": GatewayPorts no