SRG-OS-99999-ESXI5-000139 - The system must not provide root/administrator level access to CIM-based hardware monitoring tools or other 3rd party applications.

Information

The CIM system provides an interface that enables hardware-level management from remote applications via a set of standard APIs. Create a limited-privilege, read-only service account for CIM. Place the CIM account into the 'root' group. When/where write access is required, create/enable a limited-privilege, service account and grant only the minimum required privileges. CIM accounts should be limited to the 'Host >> Config >> System Management' and 'Host >> CIM >> CIMInteraction' privileges.

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

Solution

From the vSphere client, select the ESXi host; go to 'Local Users and Groups'. Create a limited-privileged, read-only service account for CIM. Place the CIM account into the 'root' group. Select Users and right-click in the user screen. Select 'Add', then Add a new user. If write access is required only grant the minimum required privileges. CIM accounts should be limited to the 'Host > Config > System Management' and 'Host > CIM > CIMInteraction' privileges.

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_VMW_ESXi5_Server_V2R1_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6b., CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000366, Group-ID|V-39297, Rule-ID|SV-250658r798973_rule, STIG-ID|SRG-OS-99999-ESXI5-000139, STIG-Legacy|SV-51113, STIG-Legacy|V-39297, Vuln-ID|V-250658

Plugin: VMware

Control ID: ef9af4e247d4738b5cae48eb4c03af50ae1f5cdfbc07aa583e0bdd8700fd9462