Details

SSH TCP connection forwarding provides a mechanism to establish TCP connections proxied by the SSH server. This function can provide similar convenience to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) with the similar risk of providing a path to circumvent firewalls and network Access Control Lists (ACLs). Gateway ports allow remote forwarded ports to bind to non-loopback addresses on the server.

Solution

From an SSH session connected to the ESXi host, or from the ESXi shell, add or correct the following line in ‘/etc/ssh/sshd_config’:

GatewayPorts no

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_VMW_vSphere_6-7_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 Unix.

References

• 800-53|CM-6b.
• CAT|III
• CCI|CCI-000366
• Rule-ID|SV-239277r674760_rule
• STIG-ID|ESXI-67-000022
• STIG-Legacy|SV-104077
• STIG-Legacy|V-93991
• Vuln-ID|V-239277

Source

• Tenable.com/audits