VCWN-65-000021 - The vCenter Server for Windows must enable SSL for Network File Copy (NFC).

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This audit has been deprecated and will be removed in a future update.

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Information

NFC is the mechanism used to migrate or clone a VM between two ESXi hosts over the network. By default, NFC over SSL is enabled (i.e., 'True') within a vSphere cluster but the value of the setting is null. Clients check the value of the setting and default to not using SSL for performance reasons if the value is null. This behavior can be changed by ensuring the setting has been explicitly created and set to 'True'. This will force clients to use SSL. Without this setting VM contents could potentially be sniffed if the management network is not adequately isolated and secured.

Solution

From the vSphere Web Client go to vCenter Inventory Lists >> vCenter Servers >> Select your vCenter Server >> Manage >> Settings >> Advanced Settings. Click 'Edit' and edit the 'config.nfc.useSSL' value to 'true' or if the value does not exist create it by entering the values in the 'Key' and 'Value' fields and clicking 'Add'.

or

From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the vCenter server run the following command:

If the setting already exists:
Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity <vcenter server name> -Name config.nfc.useSSL | Set-AdvancedSetting -Value true

If the setting does not exist:
New-AdvancedSetting -Entity <vcenter server name> -Name config.nfc.useSSL -Value true

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_VMW_vSphere_6-5_Y21M10_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: SYSTEM AND COMMUNICATIONS PROTECTION

References: 800-53|SC-8(1), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000366, Rule-ID|SV-216843r612237_rule, STIG-ID|VCWN-65-000021, STIG-Legacy|SV-104583, STIG-Legacy|V-94753, Vuln-ID|V-216843

Plugin: VMware

Control ID: 27e525e975e515080641a27ef548c392f8d21b2c81f0767f2e6718fd6bbb10d2