Details

Network Healthcheck is disabled by default. Once enabled, the healthcheck packets contain information on host#, vds#, port#, which an attacker would find useful. It is recommended that network healthcheck be used for troubleshooting, and turned off when troubleshooting is finished.

NOTE: Nessus has not performed this check. Please review the benchmark to ensure target compliance.

Solution

From the vSphere Web Client go to Networking >> Select a distributed switch >> Configure >> Settings >> Health Check. Click the ‘Edit’ button and disable both health checks.

or

From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the vCenter server run the following command:
Get-View -ViewType DistributedVirtualSwitch | ?{($_.config.HealthCheckConfig | ?{$_.enable -notmatch ‘False’})}| %{$_.UpdateDVSHealthCheckConfig(@((New-Object Vmware.Vim.VMwareDVSVlanMtuHealthCheckConfig -property @{enable=0}),(New-Object Vmware.Vim.VMwareDVSTeamingHealthCheckConfig -property @{enable=0})))}

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-216834r612237_rule
• STIG-ID|VCWN-65-000012
• STIG-Legacy|SV-104565
• STIG-Legacy|V-94735
• Vuln-ID|V-216834

Source

• Tenable.com/audits