The virtual switch Promiscuous Mode policy must be set to reject.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-63291	ESXI-06-000061	SV-77781r1_rule		Medium

Description
When promiscuous mode is enabled for a virtual switch all virtual machines connected to the Portgroup have the potential of reading all packets across that network, meaning only the virtual machines connected to that Portgroup. Promiscuous mode is disabled by default on the ESXi Server, and this is the recommended setting. Promiscuous mode can be set at the vSwitch and/or the Portgroup level. You can override switch level settings at the Portgroup level.

Description

When promiscuous mode is enabled for a virtual switch all virtual machines connected to the Portgroup have the potential of reading all packets across that network, meaning only the virtual machines connected to that Portgroup. Promiscuous mode is disabled by default on the ESXi Server, and this is the recommended setting. Promiscuous mode can be set at the vSwitch and/or the Portgroup level. You can override switch level settings at the Portgroup level.

STIG	Date
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2017-01-06

Details

Check Text ( C-64025r1_chk )
From the vSphere Client go to Configuration >> Networking >> vSphere Standard Switch. View the properties on each virtual switch and port group and verify "Promiscuous Mode" is set to reject. or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host run the following commands: Get-VirtualSwitch \| Get-SecurityPolicy Get-VirtualPortGroup \| Get-SecurityPolicy If the "Promiscuous Mode" policy is set to accept, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-64025r1_chk )

From the vSphere Client go to Configuration >> Networking >> vSphere Standard Switch. View the properties on each virtual switch and port group and verify "Promiscuous Mode" is set to reject.

or

From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host run the following commands:

Get-VirtualSwitch | Get-SecurityPolicy
Get-VirtualPortGroup | Get-SecurityPolicy

If the "Promiscuous Mode" policy is set to accept, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-69209r1_fix)
From the vSphere Client go to Configuration >> Networking >> vSphere Standard Switch. For each virtual switch go to properties and change "Promiscuous Mode" to reject for the switch and each port group. or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host run the following commands: Get-VirtualSwitch \| Get-SecurityPolicy \| Set-SecurityPolicy -AllowPromiscuous $false Get-VirtualPortGroup \| Get-SecurityPolicy \| Set-SecurityPolicy -AllowPromiscuousInherited $true

Fix Text (F-69209r1_fix)

From the vSphere Client go to Configuration >> Networking >> vSphere Standard Switch. For each virtual switch go to properties and change "Promiscuous Mode" to reject for the switch and each port group.

or

From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host run the following commands:

Get-VirtualSwitch | Get-SecurityPolicy | Set-SecurityPolicy -AllowPromiscuous $false
Get-VirtualPortGroup | Get-SecurityPolicy | Set-SecurityPolicy -AllowPromiscuousInherited $true