The ESXi host must not be configured to override virtual machine (VM) logger settings.

Overview

Finding IDVersionRule IDIA ControlsSeverity
V-258792ESXI-80-000237SV-258792r933437_ruleCCI-000366medium
Description
Each VM on an ESXi host runs in its own "vmx" process. Upon creation, a vmx process will look in two locations for configuration items, the ESXi host itself and the per-vm *.vmx file in the VM storage path on the datastore. The settings on the ESXi host are read first and take precedence over settings in the *.vmx file. This can be a convenient way to set a setting in one place and have it apply to all VMs running on that host. The difficulty is in managing those settings and determining the effective state. Since managing per-VM vmx settings can be fully automated and customized while the ESXi setting cannot be easily queried, the ESXi configuration must not be used.
STIGDate
VMware vSphere 8.0 ESXi Security Technical Implementation Guide2023-10-11

Related Frameworks

4 paths across 3 frameworks
NIST 800-531 mapping
CM-6
1.00
  • DISA · V1R1 · disa_xccdf · related
  • DISA · 2025-01-23 · disa_cci_list · equivalent
NIST 800-1712 mappings
3.4.1
1.00
  • DISA · V1R1 · disa_xccdf · related
  • DISA · 2025-01-23 · disa_cci_list · equivalent
  • NIST · Rev 2 (Feb 2020, errata Jan 2021) · nist_800_171_app_d · equivalent
3.4.2
1.00
  • DISA · V1R1 · disa_xccdf · related
  • DISA · 2025-01-23 · disa_cci_list · equivalent
  • NIST · Rev 2 (Feb 2020, errata Jan 2021) · nist_800_171_app_d · equivalent
CCI1 mapping
CCI-000366
1.00
  • DISA · V1R1 · disa_xccdf · related

Details

Check Text (C-258792r933437_chk)

From an ESXi shell, run the following command: # grep "^vmx\.log" /etc/vmware/config If the command produces any output, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-62441r933436_fix)

From an ESXi shell, run the following commands: # cp /etc/vmware/config /etc/vmware/config.bak # grep -v "^vmx\.log" /etc/vmware/config.bak>/etc/vmware/config