VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance ESX Agent Manager (EAM) STIG Version Comparison

There are 2 differences between versions v1 r1 (Oct. 31, 2023) (the "left" version) and v2 r2 (Jan. 30, 2025) (the "right" version).

Check VCEM-80-000070 was changed between these two versions. Green, underlined text was added, red, struck-out text was removed.

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Title

The vCenter ESX Agent Manager service must set an inactive timeout for sessions.

Check Content

At the command prompt, run the following command: # xmllint --format /usr/lib/vmware-eam/web/webapps/eam/WEB-INF/web.xml | sed 's/xmlns=".*"//g' | xmllint --xpath '/web-app/session-config/session-timeout' - Example result: <session-timeout>30</session-timeout> If the value of "session-timeout" is not "30" or less, or is missing, this is a finding. A value of "0" disables the session timeout. If the value of "session-timeout" is "0", this is a finding.

Discussion

Leaving sessions open indefinitely is a major security risk. An attacker can easily use an already authenticated session to access the hosted application as the previously authenticated user. By closing sessions after a set period of inactivity, the web server can make certain that those sessions that are not closed through the user logging out of an application are eventually closed. Satisfies: SRG-APP-000295-AS-000263, SRG-APP-000389-AS-000253

Fix

Navigate to and open: /usr/lib/vmware-eam/web/webapps/eam/WEB-INF/web.xml Navigate to the <session-config> node and configure the <session-timeout> as follows: <session-config> <session-timeout>30</session-timeout> <cookie-config> <http-only>true</http-only> <secure>true</secure> </cookie-config> </session-config> Restart the service with the following command: # vmon-cli --restart eam