VM : disable-hgfs

Information

Disable HGFS file transfers.

Certain automated operations such as automated tools upgrades use a component in the hypervisor called "Host Guest File System".

In previous guides this Guideline was assumed to be an attack vector. This is a hosted platform (Workstation/Fusion) capability not implemented in ESXi.

This is no longer seen as a practical attack vector on ESXi and this setting will be removed in a future interation of the SCG.

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-65/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.security.doc/GUID-76EF6146-FA0E-467F-826F-C953815218C5.html

Solution

# Add the setting to all VMs -
Get-VM | New-AdvancedSetting -Name "isolation.tools.hgfsServerSet.disable" -value $true

See Also

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/files/xls/vmware-6-5-update-1-security-configuration-guide.xlsx

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-7

Plugin: VMware

Control ID: 0330ec158f3df6807ef39f876bc32b36b75188c4d19ae61152d1af9f190ecaf8