VCEM-70-000030 - ESX Agent Manager must set the secure flag for cookies.

Information

The secure flag is an option that can be set by the application server when sending a new cookie to the user within an HTTP Response. The purpose of the secure flag is to prevent cookies from being observed by unauthorized parties due to the transmission of a cookie in clear text.

By setting the secure flag, the browser will prevent the transmission of a cookie over an unencrypted channel. The ESX Agent Manager is configured to only be accessible over a Transport Layer Security (TLS) tunnel, but this cookie flag is still a recommended best practice.

Solution

Navigate to and open:

/usr/lib/vmware-eam/web/webapps/eam/WEB-INF/web.xml

Navigate to the /<web-apps>/<session-config>/<cookie-config> node and configure it as follows:

<cookie-config>
<http-only>true</http-only>
<secure>true</secure>
</cookie-config>

Restart the service with the following command:

# vmon-cli --restart eam

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_VMW_vSphere_7-0_Y23M07_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-5(1), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-001813, Rule-ID|SV-256702r888662_rule, STIG-ID|VCEM-70-000030, Vuln-ID|V-256702

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 5de79710db8efb0c881df410063937796011de707d161ac5636c96802d935d5a