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

If the floppy drive is required to be present, then from the vSphere Client right-click the Virtual Machine and go to Edit Settings, make sure the drive is not connected and will not ‘Connect at power on’.

If the floppy drive is not required, then from the vSphere Client power off the virtual machine, right-click the Virtual Machine and go to Edit Settings, select the floppy drive and click the circle-x to remove then OK.

or

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

Get-VM ‘VM Name’ | Get-FloppyDrive | Remove-FloppyDrive

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 VMware.

References

• 800-53|CM-6b.
• CAT|II
• CCI|CCI-000366
• Rule-ID|SV-239339r679566_rule
• STIG-ID|VMCH-67-000008
• Vuln-ID|V-239339

Source

• Tenable.com/audits