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V-258728

CAT II (Medium)

The ESXi host must enforce the limit of three consecutive invalid logon attempts by a user.

Rule ID

SV-258728r933245_rule

STIG

VMware vSphere 8.0 ESXi Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R1

CCIs

CCI-000044

Discussion

By limiting the number of failed logon attempts, the risk of unauthorized access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute forcing, is reduced. Once the configured number of attempts is reached, the account is locked by the ESXi host.

Check Content

From the vSphere Client, go to Hosts and Clusters.

Select the ESXi Host >> Configure >> System >> Advanced System Settings.

Select the "Security.AccountLockFailures" value and verify it is set to "3".

or

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

Get-VMHost | Get-AdvancedSetting -Name Security.AccountLockFailures

If the "Security.AccountLockFailures" setting is set to a value other than "3", this is a finding.

Fix Text

From the vSphere Client, go to Hosts and Clusters.

Select the ESXi Host >> Configure >> System >> Advanced System Settings.

Click "Edit". Select the "Security.AccountLockFailures" value and configure it to "3".

or

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

Get-VMHost | Get-AdvancedSetting -Name Security.AccountLockFailures | Set-AdvancedSetting -Value 3