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← Back to VMware vSphere 7.0 vCenter Appliance UI Security Technical Implementation Guide

V-256809

CAT II (Medium)

vSphere UI must set the secure flag for cookies.

Rule ID

SV-256809r889426_rule

STIG

VMware vSphere 7.0 vCenter Appliance UI Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R2

CCIs

CCI-002418

Discussion

The secure flag is an option that can be set by the application server when sending a new cookie to the user within an HTTP response. The purpose of the secure flag is to prevent cookies from being observed by unauthorized parties due to the transmission of a cookie in clear text. By setting the secure flag, the browser will prevent the transmission of a cookie over an unencrypted channel. vSphere UI is configured to only be accessible over a Transport Layer Security (TLS) tunnel, but this cookie flag is still a recommended best practice.

Check Content

At the command prompt, run the following command: 
 
# xmllint --format /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-ui/server/conf/web.xml | sed 's/xmlns=".*"//g' | xmllint --xpath '/web-app/session-config/cookie-config/secure' - 
 
Expected result: 
 
<secure>true</secure> 
 
If the output of the command does not match the expected result, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Navigate to and open: 
 
/usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-ui/server/conf/web.xml 
 
Navigate to the /<web-apps>/<session-config>/<cookie-config> node and configure it as follows. 
 
    <cookie-config> 
      <http-only>true</http-only> 
      <secure>true</secure> 
    </cookie-config> 
 
Restart the service with the following command: 
 
# vmon-cli --restart vsphere-ui