The ESXi host Secure Shell (SSH) daemon must be configured to not allow gateway ports.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
low	V-258763	SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000	ESXI-80-000207	SV-258763r933350_rule	2023-10-11	1

Description
SSH Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection forwarding provides a mechanism to establish TCP connections proxied by the SSH server. This function can provide convenience similar to a virtual private network (VPN) with the similar risk of providing a path to circumvent firewalls and network Access Control Lists (ACLs). Gateway ports allow remote forwarded ports to bind to nonloopback addresses on the server.

Description

SSH Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection forwarding provides a mechanism to establish TCP connections proxied by the SSH server. This function can provide convenience similar to a virtual private network (VPN) with the similar risk of providing a path to circumvent firewalls and network Access Control Lists (ACLs). Gateway ports allow remote forwarded ports to bind to nonloopback addresses on the server.

ℹ️ Check
From an ESXi shell, run the following command: # esxcli system ssh server config list -k gatewayports or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following commands: $esxcli = Get-EsxCli -v2 $esxcli.system.ssh.server.config.list.invoke() \| Where-Object {$_.Key -eq 'gatewayports'} Example result: gatewayports no If "gatewayports" is not configured to "no", this is a finding.

ℹ️ Check

From an ESXi shell, run the following command: # esxcli system ssh server config list -k gatewayports or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following commands: $esxcli = Get-EsxCli -v2 $esxcli.system.ssh.server.config.list.invoke() | Where-Object {$_.Key -eq 'gatewayports'} Example result: gatewayports no If "gatewayports" is not configured to "no", this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
From an ESXi shell, run the following command: # esxcli system ssh server config set -k gatewayports -v no or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following commands: $esxcli = Get-EsxCli -v2 $arguments = $esxcli.system.ssh.server.config.set.CreateArgs() $arguments.keyword = 'gatewayports' $arguments.value = 'no' $esxcli.system.ssh.server.config.set.Invoke($arguments)

✔️ Fix

From an ESXi shell, run the following command: # esxcli system ssh server config set -k gatewayports -v no or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following commands: $esxcli = Get-EsxCli -v2 $arguments = $esxcli.system.ssh.server.config.set.CreateArgs() $arguments.keyword = 'gatewayports' $arguments.value = 'no' $esxcli.system.ssh.server.config.set.Invoke($arguments)