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V-256773

CAT II (Medium)

The Security Token Service must set the secure flag for cookies.

Rule ID

SV-256773r889289_rule

STIG

VMware vSphere 7.0 vCenter Appliance STS 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 the cookie in clear text. By setting the secure flag, the browser will prevent the transmission of a cookie over an unencrypted channel. The Security Token Service 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-sso/vmware-sts/conf/web.xml | sed '2 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-sso/vmware-sts/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 sts