The vCenter STS service must set URIEncoding to UTF-8.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-258981	VCST-80-000065	SV-258981r934601_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 bypass security checks.

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 bypass security checks.

STIG	Date
VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Secure Token Service (STS) Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-10-29

Details

Check Text ( C-62721r934599_chk )
At the command prompt, run the following command: # xmllint --xpath "//Connector[@URIEncoding != 'UTF-8'] \| //Connector[not[@URIEncoding]]" /usr/lib/vmware-sso/vmware-sts/conf/server.xml Expected result: XPath set is empty If any connectors are returned, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-62630r934600_fix)
Navigate to and open: /usr/lib/vmware-sso/vmware-sts/conf/server.xml Configure the node with the value: URIEncoding="UTF-8" Restart the service with the following command: # vmon-cli --restart sts