The vCenter UI service must disable "ALLOW_BACKSLASH".
Overview
| Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
| V-259133 | VCUI-80-000151 | SV-259133r935303_rule | CCI-000366 | medium |
| Description | ||||
| When Tomcat is installed behind a proxy configured to only allow access to certain contexts (web applications), an HTTP request containing "/\../" may allow attackers to work around the proxy restrictions using directory traversal attack methods. If "allow_backslash" is "true", the "\" character will be permitted as a path delimiter. The default value for the setting is "false", but Tomcat must always be configured as if no proxy restricting context access was used, and "allow_backslash" should be set to "false" to prevent directory-traversal-style attacks. This setting can create operability issues with noncompliant clients. | ||||
| STIG | Date | |||
| VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance User Interface (UI) Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2023-10-29 | |||
Related Frameworks
4 paths across 3 frameworks
Related 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-259133r935303_chk)
At the command line, run the following command:
# grep ALLOW_BACKSLASH /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-ui/server/conf/catalina.properties
Example result:
org.apache.catalina.connector.ALLOW_BACKSLASH=false
If "org.apache.catalina.connector.ALLOW_BACKSLASH" is not set to "false", this is a finding.
If the "org.apache.catalina.connector.ALLOW_BACKSLASH" setting does not exist, this is not a finding.
Fix Text (F-62782r935302_fix)
Navigate to and open:
/usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-ui/server/conf/catalina.properties
Update or remove the following line:
org.apache.catalina.connector.ALLOW_BACKSLASH=false
Restart the service with the following command:
# vmon-cli --restart vsphere-ui