VMware vSphere 7.0 vCenter Appliance STS Security Technical Implementation Guide

Overview

Version	Date	Finding Count (31)			Downloads
1	2023-06-15 2023-02-21	CAT I (High): 0	CAT II (Med): 31	CAT III (Low): 0	Excel	JSON	XML

STIG Description
This Security Technical Implementation Guide is published as a tool to improve the security of Department of Defense (DOD) information systems. The requirements are derived from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-53 and related documents. Comments or proposed revisions to this document should be sent via email to the following address: disa.stig_spt@mail.mil.

Available Profiles

Classified	Public	Sensitive
I - Mission Critical Classified	I - Mission Critical Public	I - Mission Critical Sensitive	II - Mission Support Classified	II - Mission Support Public	II - Mission Support Sensitive	III - Administrative Classified	III - Administrative Public	III - Administrative Sensitive

Findings (MAC II - Mission Support Sensitive)

Finding ID	Severity	Title	Description
V-256769	Medium	The Security Token Service must not enable support for TRACE requests.	"TRACE" is a technique for a user to request internal information about Tomcat. This is useful during product development but should not be enabled in production. Allowing an attacker to conduct a...
V-256768	Medium	The Security Token Service must be configured to not show error reports.	Web servers will often display error messages to client users, displaying enough information to aid in the debugging of the error. The information given back in error messages may display the web...
V-256745	Medium	The Security Token Service must limit the amount of time that each Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection is kept alive.	Denial of service (DoS) is one threat against web servers. Many DoS attacks attempt to consume web server resources in such a way that no more resources are available to satisfy legitimate...
V-256747	Medium	The Security Token Service must limit the maximum size of a POST request.	The "maxPostSize" value is the maximum size in bytes of the POST that will be handled by the container FORM URL parameter parsing. Limit its size to reduce exposure to a denial-of-service (DoS)...
V-256746	Medium	The Security Token Service must limit the number of concurrent connections permitted.	Resource exhaustion can occur when an unlimited number of concurrent requests are allowed on a website, facilitating a denial-of-service attack. Unless the number of requests is controlled, the...
V-256749	Medium	The Security Token Service must record user access in a format that enables monitoring of remote access.	Remote access can be exploited by an attacker to compromise the server. By recording all remote access activities, it will be possible to determine the attacker's location, intent, and degree of...
V-256748	Medium	The Security Token Service must protect cookies from cross-site scripting (XSS).	Cookies are a common way to save session state over the HTTP(S) protocol. If an attacker can compromise session data stored in a cookie, they are better able to launch an attack against the server...
V-256761	Medium	The Security Token Service directory tree must have permissions in an out-of-the-box state.	As a rule, accounts on a web server are to be kept to a minimum. Only administrators, web managers, developers, auditors, and web authors require accounts on the machine hosting the web server....
V-256760	Medium	The Security Token Service must not have any symbolic links in the web content directory tree.	A web server is designed to deliver content and execute scripts or applications on the request of a client or user. Containing user requests to files in the directory tree of the hosted web...
V-256767	Medium	The Security Token Service must not show directory listings.	Enumeration techniques, such as Uniform Resource Locator (URL) parameter manipulation, rely on being able to obtain information about the web server's directory structure by locating directories...
V-256766	Medium	The Security Token Service must set the welcome-file node to a default web page.	Enumeration techniques, such as Uniform Resource Locator (URL) parameter manipulation, rely on being able to obtain information about the web server's directory structure by locating directories...
V-256765	Medium	The Security Token Service must use the "setCharacterEncodingFilter" filter.	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...
V-256764	Medium	The Security Token Service must set "URIEncoding" to UTF-8.	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...
V-256756	Medium	The Security Token Service must have Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) that invoke operating system shell programs disabled.	MIME mappings tell the Security Token Service what type of program various file types and extensions are and what external utilities or programs are needed to execute the file type. By ensuring...
V-256763	Medium	The Security Token Service must limit the number of allowed connections.	Limiting the number of established connections to the Security Token Service is a basic denial-of-service protection. Servers where the limit is too high or unlimited can potentially run out of...
V-256762	Medium	The Security Token Service must fail to a known safe state if system initialization fails, shutdown fails, or aborts fail.	Determining a safe state for failure and weighing that against a potential denial of service for users depends on what type of application the web server is hosting. For the Security Token...
V-256754	Medium	The Security Token Service must not be configured with unused realms.	The Security Token Service performs user authentication at the application level and not through Tomcat. To eliminate unnecessary features and ensure the Security Token Service remains in its...
V-256755	Medium	The Security Token Service must be configured to limit access to internal packages.	The "package.access" entry in the "catalina.properties" file implements access control at the package level. When properly configured, a Security Exception will be reported if an errant or...
V-256757	Medium	The Security Token Service must have mappings set for Java servlet pages.	Resource mapping is the process of tying a particular file type to a process in the web server that can serve that type of file to a requesting client and identify which file types are not to be...
V-256752	Medium	The Security Token Service application files must be verified for their integrity.	Verifying the Security Token Service application code is unchanged from its shipping state is essential for file validation and nonrepudiation of the Security Token Service. There is no reason the...
V-256753	Medium	The Security Token Service must only run one webapp.	VMware ships the Security Token Service on the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) with one webapp, in "ROOT.war". Any other ".war" file is potentially malicious and must be removed. Satisfies:...
V-256758	Medium	The Security Token Service must not have the Web Distributed Authoring (WebDAV) servlet installed.	WebDAV is an extension to the HTTP protocol that, when developed, was meant to allow users to create, change, and move documents on a server, typically a web server or web share. WebDAV is not...
V-256759	Medium	The Security Token Service must be configured with memory leak protection.	The Java Runtime environment can cause a memory leak or lock files under certain conditions. Without memory leak protection, the Security Token Service can continue to consume system resources...
V-256770	Medium	The Security Token Service must have the debug option disabled.	Information needed by an attacker to begin looking for possible vulnerabilities in a web server includes any information about the web server and plug-ins or modules being used. When debugging or...
V-256771	Medium	The Security Token Service must be configured with the appropriate ports.	Web servers provide numerous processes, features, and functionalities that use TCP/IP ports. Some of these processes may be deemed unnecessary or too unsecure to run on a production system. The...
V-256772	Medium	The Security Token Service must disable the shutdown port.	An attacker has at least two reasons to stop a web server. The first is to cause a denial of service, and the second is to put in place changes the attacker made to the web server configuration. ...
V-256773	Medium	The Security Token Service must set the secure flag for cookies.	The secure flag is an option that can be set by the application server when sending a new cookie to the user within an HTTP Response. The purpose of the secure flag is to prevent cookies from...
V-256774	Medium	The Security Token Service default servlet must be set to "readonly".	The default servlet (or DefaultServlet) is a special servlet provided with Tomcat that is called when no other suitable page is found in a particular folder. The DefaultServlet serves static...
V-256775	Medium	Security Token Service log data and records must be backed up onto a different system or media.	Protection of Security Token Service log data includes ensuring log data is not accidentally lost or deleted. Backing up Security Token Service log records to an unrelated system or onto separate...
V-256750	Medium	The Security Token Service must generate log records during Java startup and shutdown.	Logging must be started as soon as possible when a service starts and as late as possible when a service is stopped. Many forms of suspicious actions can be detected by analyzing logs for...
V-256751	Medium	Security Token Service log files must only be modifiable by privileged users.	Log data is essential in the investigation of events. The accuracy of the information is always pertinent. One of the first steps an attacker will undertake is the modification or deletion of log...