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The ESXi host must enable volatile key destruction.

Overview

Finding IDVersionRule IDIA ControlsSeverity
V-258780ESXI-80-000225SV-258780r959010_ruleCCI-000366medium
Description
By default, pages allocated for virtual machines (VMs), userspace applications, and kernel threads are zeroed out at allocation time. ESXi will always ensure that no nonzero pages are exposed to VMs or userspace applications. While this prevents exposing cryptographic keys from VMs or userworlds to other clients, these keys can stay present in host memory for a long time if the memory is not reused. The NIAP Virtualization Protection Profile and Server Virtualization Extended Package require that memory that may contain cryptographic keys be zeroed upon process exit. To this end, a new configuration option, MemEagerZero, can be configured to enforce zeroing out userworld and guest memory pages when a userworld process or guest exits. For kernel threads, memory spaces holding keys are zeroed out as soon as the secret is no longer needed.
STIGDate
VMware vSphere 8.0 ESXi Security Technical Implementation Guide2026-06-04

Related Frameworks

1 mapping across 5 frameworks
SCF0 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 3 hops (8) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

CFG-01Configuration Management Program
1.00
END-01Endpoint Device Management (EDM)
1.00
END-04Malicious Code Protection (Anti-Malware)
1.00
END-06Endpoint File Integrity Monitoring (FIM)
1.00
MON-01Continuous Monitoring
1.00
MON-01.7File Integrity Monitoring (FIM)
1.00
CFG-02Secure Baseline Configurations
0.50
CFG-02.7Approved Configuration Deviations
0.50
NIST 800-530 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 2 hops (100) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

AC-12Session Termination
1.00
AC-16(1)Dynamic Attribute Association
1.00
AC-17(1)Monitoring and Control
1.00
AC-2Account Management
1.00
AC-2(1)Automated System Account Management
1.00
AC-2(11)Usage Conditions
1.00
AC-2(3)Disable Accounts
1.00
AC-2(4)Automated Audit Actions
1.00
AC-24(1)Transmit Access Authorization Information
1.00
AC-25Reference Monitor
1.00

+90 more (top 10 by confidence shown)

NIST 800-1710 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 3 hops (2) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

3.4.1
1.00
3.4.2
1.00
CCI1 mapping
CCI-000366
1.00
NIST CSF 2.00 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 3 hops (5) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

DE.CM-09
1.00
PR.PS-01
1.00
PR.DS-10
0.50
PR.PSPlatform Security
0.50
PR.PS-05
0.50

Who does this work

10 NICE work roles and 9 EC-Council certifications.

This is an inference across published mappings, not a single claim by anyone. This check maps to a control, which maps to a Cybersecurity Framework outcome, which NIST assigns to the work roles below. EC-Council separately maps its certifications to those same roles.

A certification prepares someone for a role. It is not evidence that a holder is qualified, and neither NIST nor EC-Council has stated that any certification here addresses this check.

Work-role assignments published by NIST (NICE Framework Components 2.2.0 and the CSF 2.0 OLIR crosswalk). Certification mappings published by EC-Council.

Details

Check Text (C-258780r959010_chk)

From the vSphere Client, go to Hosts and Clusters. Select the ESXi Host >> Configure >> System >> Advanced System Settings. Select the "Mem.MemEagerZero" value and verify it is set to "1". or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following command: Get-VMHost | Get-AdvancedSetting -Name Mem.MemEagerZero If the "Mem.MemEagerZero" setting is not set to "1", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-62429r933400_fix)

From the vSphere Client, go to Hosts and Clusters. Select the ESXi Host >> Configure >> System >> Advanced System Settings. Click "Edit". Select the "Mem.MemEagerZero" value and configure it to "1". or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following command: Get-VMHost | Get-AdvancedSetting -Name Mem.MemEagerZero | Set-AdvancedSetting -Value 1