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 Client select the Virtual Machine right click 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.

• http://iasecontent.disa.mil/stigs/zip/U_VMware_vSphere_6-0_Virtual_Machine_V1R1_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
• Group-ID|V-64095
• Rule-ID|SV-78585r1_rule
• STIG-ID|VMCH-06-000029
• Vuln-ID|V-64095

Source

• Tenable.com/audits