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V-258769

CAT II (Medium)

The ESXi host must configure the firewall to block network traffic by default.

Rule ID

SV-258769r1003571_rule

STIG

VMware vSphere 8.0 ESXi Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V2R4

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

In addition to service-specific firewall rules, ESXi has a default firewall rule policy to allow or deny incoming and outgoing traffic. Reduce the risk of attack by ensuring this is set to deny incoming and outgoing traffic.

Check Content

From an ESXi shell, run the following command:

# esxcli network firewall get

or

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

$esxcli = Get-EsxCli -v2
$esxcli.network.firewall.get.invoke()

If the "Default Action" does not equal "DROP", this is a finding.
If "Enabled" does not equal "true", this is a finding.

Fix Text

From an ESXi shell, run the following command:

# esxcli network firewall set --default-action false --enabled true

or

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

$esxcli = Get-EsxCli -v2
$arguments = $esxcli.network.firewall.set.CreateArgs()
$arguments.enabled = $true
$arguments.defaultaction = $false
$esxcli.network.firewall.set.Invoke($arguments)