8.2.8 Ensure PCI and PCIe device passthrough is disabled

Information

Using the VMware DirectPath I/O feature to pass through a PCI or PCIe device to a virtual machine can result in a potential security vulnerability.

Rationale:

The vulnerability can be triggered by buggy or malicious code running in privileged mode in the guest OS, such as a device driver.

Solution

The following PowerCLI command can be used:

# Add the setting to all VMs
Get-VM | New-AdvancedSetting -Name 'pciPassthru*.present' -value ''

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/12725

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6, 800-53|CM-7, CSCv7|9.2

Plugin: VMware

Control ID: 0a8ad9e9e77dbacad4411d17c78d7b2306a837bb70ff1cc562916cd50e50f067