6.4 Zero out VMDK files prior to deletion

Information

Zeroing out a VMDK before deleting can help prevent users from reconstructing the
original contents of the disk.

*Rationale*

To help prevent sensitive data in VMDK files from being read off the physical disk after it is
deleted, the virtual disk should be zeroed out prior to deletion. This will make it more
difficult for someone to reconstruct the contents of the VMDK file. The CLI command
'vmkfstools -writezeroes' can be used to write zeros to the entire contents of a VMDK file
prior to its deletion.

NOTE: Nessus has not performed this check. Please review the benchmark to ensure target compliance.

Solution

When deleting a VMDK file with sensitive data-

1. Shut down or stop the virtual machine.
2. Issue the CLI command 'vmkfstools -writezeroes' on that file prior to deleting it
from the datastore.Impact-CAUTION-
When you use this command, you lose any existing data on the virtual disk.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/145

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-7, CSCv7|13.2

Plugin: VMware

Control ID: 00f371d3ac167f6f65746918a1c95df3a141e368fd634ca11976aca9d9df641d