ESXI-06-100041 - The VMM must automatically terminate a user session after inactivity timeouts have expired or at shutdown by setting an idle timeout.

Information

If a user forgets to log out of their SSH session, the idle connection will remains open indefinitely, increasing the potential for someone to gain privileged access to the host. The ESXiShellInteractiveTimeOut allows you to automatically terminate idle shell sessions.

Solution

From the vSphere Client select the ESXi Host and go to Configuration >> Advanced Settings. Select the UserVars.ESXiShellInteractiveTimeOut value and configure it to 600.

or

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

Get-VMHost | Get-AdvancedSetting -Name UserVars.ESXiShellInteractiveTimeOut | Set-AdvancedSetting -Value 600

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_VMware_vSphere_6-0_ESXi_V1R5_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: ACCESS CONTROL

References: 800-53|AC-12, CAT|II, CCI|CCI-002361, Group-ID|V-63773, Rule-ID|SV-78263r1_rule, STIG-ID|ESXI-06-100041, Vuln-ID|V-63773

Plugin: VMware

Control ID: a1f30f70768954b3eb11b01296bfceb654ca8649863ea5a7cfdd43938ea21ae8