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V-256549

CAT II (Medium)

The Photon operating system must configure sshd to disable X11 forwarding.

Rule ID

SV-256549r991589_rule

STIG

VMware vSphere 7.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R4

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

X11 is an older, insecure graphics forwarding protocol. It is not used by Photon and should be disabled as a general best practice to limit attack surface area and communication channels.

Check Content

At the command line, run the following command:

# sshd -T|&grep -i X11Forwarding

Expected result:

X11Forwarding no

If the output does not match the expected result, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Navigate to and open:

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

Ensure the "X11Forwarding" line is uncommented and set to the following:

X11Forwarding no

At the command line, run the following command:

# systemctl restart sshd.service