ESXI5-VM-000041 - The system must limit VM logging records

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Information

Use these settings to limit the total size and number of log files. Normally a new log file is created only when a host is rebooted, so the file can grow to be quite large. Ensure new log files are created more frequently by limiting the maximum size of the log files. If restricting the total size of logging data is wanted, VMware recommends saving 10 log files, each one limited to 1,000KB. Datastores are likely to be formatted with a block size of 2MB or 4MB, so a size limit too far below this size would result in unnecessary storage utilization. Each time an entry is written to the log, the size of the log is checked; if it is over the limit, the next entry is written to a new log. If the maximum number of log files already exists, when a new one is created, the oldest log file is deleted. A denial-of-service attack that avoids these limits might be attempted by writing an enormous log entry. But each log entry is limited to 4KB, so no log files are ever more than 4KB larger than the configured limit. A second option is to disable logging for the virtual machine. Disabling logging for a virtual machine makes troubleshooting challenging and support difficult. Do not consider disabling logging unless the log file rotation approach proves insufficient. Uncontrolled logging can lead to denial-of-service due to the datastore becoming filled.

Solution

As root, log in to the ESXi host and locate the VM's vmx file.
find / | grep vmx

Add the following to the VM's vmx file.
keyword = 'keyval'

Where:
keyword = log.keepOld
keyval = 10

See Also

http://iasecontent.disa.mil/stigs/zip/U_ESXi5_Virtual_Machine_V1R7_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: AUDIT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

References: 800-53|AU-4, CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000366, CSCv6|6.3, Group-ID|V-39495, Rule-ID|SV-51353r1_rule, STIG-ID|ESXI5-VM-000041, Vuln-ID|V-39495

Plugin: VMware

Control ID: 653abf38bbe9621f11528f231e1dab12c89b58963b85a036c9125e54dc17c818