The NSX Distributed Firewall must terminate all network connections associated with a communications session at the end of the session, or as follows: for in-band management sessions (privileged sessions), the session must be terminated after 10 minutes of inactivity; and for user sessions (non-privileged session), the session must be terminated after 15 minutes of inactivity.

From VMware NSX Distributed Firewall Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-001133

SV-83753r1_rule The NSX Distributed Firewall must terminate all network connections associated with a communications session at the end of the session, or as follows: for in-band management sessions (privileged sessions), the session must be terminated after 10 minutes of inactivity; and for user sessions (non-privileged session), the session must be terminated after 15 minutes of inactivity.

Vulnerability discussion

Terminating an idle session within a short time period reduces the window of opportunity for unauthorized personnel to take control of a management session enabled on the console or console port that has been left unattended. In addition, quickly terminating an idle session will also free up resources committed by the managed network element. Terminating network connections associated with communications sessions includes, for example, de-allocating associated TCP/IP address/port pairs at the operating system level, and de-allocating networking assignments at the application level if multiple application sessions are using a single operating system level network connection. ALGs may provide session control functionality as part of content filtering, load balancing, or proxy services.

Check content

Verify the vSphere Web Client sessions terminate after "10" minutes of idle time, requiring the user to log in again to resume using the client. You can view the timeout value by viewing the webclient.properties file. On the system where vCenter is installed locate the webclient.properties file. Windows: C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenter Server\cfg\vsphere-client Find the session.timeout = line in the webclient.properties file. If the session timeout is not set to "10" in the webclient.properties file, this is a finding.

Fix text

Change the timeout value by editing the webclient.properties file. On the system where vCenter is installed locate the webclient.properties file. Windows: C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenter Server\cfg\vsphere-client Edit the file to include the line "session.timeout = 10" where "10" is the timeout value in minutes. Uncomment the line if necessary. After editing the file the vSphere Web Client service must be restarted.

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