Title

The ESXi host must disable virtual hardware management network interfaces. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Hardware management controllers often present virtual or USB NICs to the ESXi host. These can be used as backdoors and should be deactivated both in the hardware configuration and in ESXi.

Check Content

From the vSphere Client, go to Hosts and Clusters. Select the ESXi Host >> Configure >> System >> Advanced System Settings. Select the "Net.BMCNetworkEnable" value and verify it is set to "0". or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following command: Get-VMHost | Get-AdvancedSetting -Name Net.BMCNetworkEnable If the "Net.BMCNetworkEnable" setting is not set to "0", this is a finding.

Fix Text

From the vSphere Client, go to Hosts and Clusters. Select the ESXi Host >> Configure >> System >> Advanced System Settings. Click "Edit". Select the "Net.BMCNetworkEnable" value and configure it to "0". or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following command: Get-VMHost | Get-AdvancedSetting -Name Net.BMCNetworkEnable | Set-AdvancedSetting -Value 0

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-265977r1003587_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-265977

Group Title: SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.