ESXI5-VM-000045 - System must prevent removal/connection/mod of devices by setting isolation.device.connectable.disable to true

Information

Normal users and processes-that is, users and processes without root or administrator privileges-within virtual machines have the capability to connect or disconnect devices, such as network adaptors and CD-ROM drives, as well as the ability to modify device settings. In general, the virtual machine settings should use editor or configuration editor to remove any unneeded or unused hardware devices. However, the device may need to be used again, so removing it is not always a good solution. In that case, prevent a user or running process in the virtual machine from connecting or disconnecting a device from within the guest operating system, as well as modifying devices, by adding the following parameters. By default, a rogue user with non-administrator privileges in a virtual machine can connect a disconnected CD-ROM drive and access sensitive information on the media left in the drive.

Solution

As root, log in to the ESXi host and locate the VM's vmx file.
find / | grep vmx

Add the following to the VM's vmx file.
keyword = 'keyval'

Where:
keyword = isolation.device.connectable.disable
keyval = TRUE

See Also

http://iasecontent.disa.mil/stigs/zip/U_ESXi5_Virtual_Machine_V1R7_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: ACCESS CONTROL

References: 800-53|AC-6(10), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000366, Group-ID|V-39499, Rule-ID|SV-51357r1_rule, STIG-ID|ESXI5-VM-000045, Vuln-ID|V-39499

Plugin: VMware

Control ID: a4acec604529a19390e32ac841d3cdde3be8e0670acb22e0909e1914d1de5eb0