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vSphere Security Hardening Report Script Updated for vSphere 5.1

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A public draft of the vSphere Security Hardening Guide for vSphere 5.1 was released a few weeks back by my colleague Mike Foley. Since then I have been asked by several people if I had a chance to update my vSphere Security Hardening Report Script. The answer was unfortunately no due to other projects I had been working on and this script as well as others are maintained outside of my normal day job. I finally found some time this past weekend to go through the 5.1 revision of the hardening guide and make the necessary updates to my script which includes a few additional checks.

The script continues to provide backwards compatibility to previous releases of the vSphere Security Hardening Guide for vSphere 5.0, 4.1 and 4.0. Maintaining this compatibility is actually quite a challenge due to small minor changes in the hardening guide from previous versions, but I am please to say the latest 5.1 draft has now been implemented.

Disclaimer: This script is not officially supported by VMware, please test this in a development environment before using on production systems.  

Here is a sample output for the Security Hardening Report for a subset of my vSphere 5.1 home lab environment using "profile1" check:
vmwarevSphereSecurityHardeningReport-SAMPLE.html

For more details about the security hardening script, please refer to the documentation here.

If you have any feedback/questions on the vSphere Security Hardening Guide itself, make sure you to leave your comments and questions here. If you have any feedback/questions regarding the script, please join the vSphere Security Hardening Report VMTN Group for further discussions.

vSphere Security Hardening Report Script for vSphere 5

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The much anticipated vSphere 5 Security Hardening Guide was just released last week by VMware and includes several new guidelines for the vSphere 5 platform. In addition to the new guidelines, you will also find that the old vSphere 4.x guideline identifiers (e.g. VMX00, COS00, VCENTER00) are no longer being used and have been replaced by a new set of identifiers. You might ask why the change? Though I can not provide any specifics, but rest assure this has been done for a very good reason. There is also a change in the security guidance levels, in the vSphere 4.x guide, you had enterprise, SSLF and DMZ and with the vSphere 5 guide, you now have profile1, profile2 and profile3 where profile1 provides the most secure guidelines. To get a list of all the guideline changes between the 4.1 and 5.0 Security Hardening Guide, take a look at this document here.

I too was impacted by these changes as it meant I had to add additional logic and split up certain guidelines to support both the old and new identifiers in my vSphere Security Hardening Script. One of the challenges I faced with the old identifiers and creating my vSphere Security Hardening Script is that a single ID could be applicable for several independent checks and this can make it difficult to troubleshoot. I am glad that each guideline is now an individual and unique ID which should also make it easier for users to interpret.

To help with your vSphere Security Hardening validation, I have updated my security hardening script to include the current public draft of the vSphere 5 Security Hardening Guide. You can download the script here.

Disclaimer: This script is not officially supported by VMware, please test this in a development environment before using on production systems.  

The script now supports both a vSphere 4.x environment as well as vSphere 5.0 environment. In addition to adding the new guideline checks and enhancing a few older ones, I have also included two additional checks that are not in Hardening Guide which is to verify an ESX(i) host or vCenter Server's SSL certificate expiry. I recently wrote an article on the topic here, but thought this would be a beneficial check to include in my vSphere Security Hardening Script. If you would like to see the verification of SSL certificate expiry in the official vSphere 5 Security Hardening Guide, please be sure to provide your feedback here.

Here is a sample output for the Security Hardening Report for a vSphere 5 environment using "profile2" check:
vmwarevSphereSecurityHardeningReport-SAMPLE.html

UPDATE (06/03/12): VMware just released the official vSphere 5 Security Hardening Guide this week and I have also updated my script to include all modifications. If there are any feedback/bug reports, please post them in the vSphere Security Hardening Report VMTN Group.

If you have any feedback/questions, please join the vSphere Security Hardening Report VMTN Group for further discussions.

Updated vSphere Security Hardening Report Script for vSphere 4.1

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VMware released earlier this week the first draft copy of the vSphere 4.1 Security Hardening Guide which provides several changes to the vSphere 4.0 version released last year. Unfortunately there was no change list provided and you have to manually go through both documents to get the differences. Luckily I did the heavy lifting for you and here are the changes in 4.1 version:

Edit: It looks like Charu of VMware has already posted a "diff" of the 4.0 and 4.1 version here.

Added Checks (14):

  • VSH07 (Enterprise) - Check for privilege re-assignment after vCenter Server restarts
  • VSH10 (Enterprise) - Clean up log files after failed installations of vCenter Server
  • VUM06 (Enterprise) - Do not use default self-signed certificates
  • VMX23 (Enterprise) - Use secure protocols for virtual serial port access
  • VMX24 (DMZ) - Disable certain unexposed features
  • VMX56 (Enteprise) - Restrict access to VMsafe network APIs
  • HIN02 (Enterprise) - Keep ESX/ESXi system properly patched
  • HCM05 (DMZ) - Disable Welcome web page
  • HMT12 (Enterprise) - Prevent unintended use of VMsafe network APIs
  • HMT15 (Enterprise) - Audit for loading of unauthorized kernel modules (ESXi only)
  • HMT20 (DMZ) - Ensure that vpxuser auto-password change meets policy
  • HMT21 (DMZ) - Ensure that vpxuser password meets length policy
  • HCN05 (SSLF) - Disable DCUI to prevent all local administrative control
  • HCN06 (Enterprise) - Disable Tech Support Mode unless needed for diagnostics and break-fix

Removed Checks (10):

  • VMX03 (Enterprise) - Disable copy/paste to remote console
  • VMX51 (Enterprise) - Restrict access to VMsafe CPU/memory APIs
  • VMX54 (Enterprise) - Restrict access to VMsafe network APIs
  • HCM04 (Enterprise) - Ensure that ESX is configured to encrypt all sessions
  • HMT10 (Enterprise) - Prevent unintended use of VMsafe CPU/memory APIs
  • HMT11 (Enterprise) - Prevent unintended use of VMsafe network APIs
  • HCN01 (Enterprise) - Ensure that only authorized users have access to the DCUI
  • HCN03 (Enterprise) - Avoid adding the root user to local groups
  • HCN04 (SSLF) - Disable tech support mode
  • COP06 (DMZ) - Ensure that vpxuser auto-password change in vCenter meets policy

Note: Some of the removed checks may have been replaced with newer and updated information and shows up in the added checks.

To help with your vSphere validation, here is the latest version of the vSphere Security Hardening Report script 1.5 script. There have been a few enhancements to the script which only validates a check based on whether it it is applicable to classic ESX or ESXi, which in the past it would display "N/A". There is also some further validation of the service endpoints for /, /ui, and /mob that may also help reduce manual verification where applicable. You can also join the new vSphere Security Hardening Report VMTN Group for new updates, bug report and discussions.

Here is an updated sample report based on vSphere 4.1:
vmwarevSphereSecurityHardeningReport-SAMPLE.html

One other thing I noticed while going through both the 4.0 and 4.1 security guide is the numbers for the code are all over the place, there are sometimes huge gaps that are unexplained (e.g. VSH6, VSH7 ... VSH10)