Details

Ensure that no device is connected to a virtual machine if it is not required. For example, floppy, serial and parallel ports are rarely used for virtual machines in a datacenter environment, and CD/DVD drives are usually connected only temporarily during software installation.

Solution

From the vSphere Web Client right-click the Virtual Machine and go to Edit Settings. Select the CD/DVD drive and uncheck ‘Connected’ and ‘Connect at power on’ and remove any attached ISOs.

or

From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host or vCenter server, run the following command:

Get-VM ‘VM Name’ | Get-CDDrive | Set-CDDrive -NoMedia

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

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

This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: Configuration Management.This control applies to the following type of system VMware.

References

• 800-53|CM-6b.
• CAT|III
• CCI|CCI-000366
• Rule-ID|SV-237088r640101_rule
• STIG-ID|VMCH-65-000029
• STIG-Legacy|SV-104445
• STIG-Legacy|V-94615
• Vuln-ID|V-237088

Source

• Tenable.com/audits