ESXI-06-000029 - The system must remove keys from the SSH authorized_keys file.

Information

ESXi hosts come with SSH which can be enabled to allow remote access without requiring user authentication. To enable password free access copy the remote users public key into the '/etc/ssh/keys-root/authorized_keys' file on the ESXi host. The presence of the remote user's public key in the 'authorized_keys' file identifies the user as trusted, meaning the user is granted access to the host without providing a password. If using Lockdown Mode and SSH is disabled then login with authorized keys will have the same restrictions as username/password.

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

Solution

As root, log in to the host and zero/remove /etc/ssh/keys-root/authorized_keys file:
# >/etc/ssh/keys-root/authorized_keys
or
# rm /etc/ssh/keys-root/authorized_keys

See Also

http://iasecontent.disa.mil/stigs/zip/U_VMware_vSphere_6-0_ESXi_V1R4_STIG.zip

Item Details

References: CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000366, Group-ID|V-63227, Rule-ID|SV-77717r1_rule, STIG-ID|ESXI-06-000029

Plugin: VMware

Control ID: 7091f668e7e8f460ca48873905f1c50cfda318cef2470be9a42eeb8a64ddb2c5