ESXI-70-000037 - The ESXi host must use Active Directory for local user authentication.

Information

Join ESXi hosts to an Active Directory domain to eliminate the need to create and maintain multiple local user accounts. Using Active Directory for user authentication simplifies the ESXi host configuration, ensures password complexity and reuse policies are enforced, and reduces the risk of security breaches and unauthorized access.

Note: If the Active Directory group 'ESX Admins' (default) exists, all users and groups assigned as members to this group will have full administrative access to all ESXi hosts in the domain.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000104-VMM-000500, SRG-OS-000109-VMM-000550, SRG-OS-000112-VMM-000560, SRG-OS-000113-VMM-000570

NOTE: Nessus has not performed this check. Please review the benchmark to ensure target compliance.

Solution

From the vSphere Client, go to Hosts and Clusters.

Select the ESXi Host >> Configure >> System >> Authentication Services.

Click 'Join Domain...' and enter the AD domain to join.

Select the 'Using credentials' radio button and enter the credentials of an account with permissions to join machines to AD (use UPN naming 'user@domain'). Click 'OK'.

or

From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following command:

Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostAuthentication | Set-VMHostAuthentication -JoinDomain -Domain 'domain name' -User 'username' -Password 'password'

If any local user accounts are present besides root and service accounts, delete them by going to Host UI >> Manage >> Security & Users >> Users.

See Also

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

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-2, 800-53|IA-2(5), 800-53|IA-2(8), 800-53|IA-2(9), CAT|III, CCI|CCI-000764, CCI|CCI-000770, CCI|CCI-001941, CCI|CCI-001942, Rule-ID|SV-256402r885987_rule, STIG-ID|ESXI-70-000037, Vuln-ID|V-256402

Plugin: VMware

Control ID: 5cfbcbe6ab068a2a76a8156c309a148e7d00455df2ce97770bfd9979201a6b29