The ESXi host Secure Shell (SSH) daemon must set a timeout interval on idle sessions.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
low	V-258766	SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000	ESXI-80-000211	SV-258766r933359_rule	2023-10-11	1

Description
Automatically logging out idle users guards against compromises via hijacked administrative sessions.

ℹ️ Check
From an ESXi shell, run the following command: # esxcli system ssh server config list -k clientaliveinterval 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 'clientaliveinterval'} Example result: clientaliveinterval 200 If "clientaliveinterval" is not configured to "200", this is a finding.

ℹ️ Check

From an ESXi shell, run the following command: # esxcli system ssh server config list -k clientaliveinterval 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 'clientaliveinterval'} Example result: clientaliveinterval 200 If "clientaliveinterval" is not configured to "200", this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
From an ESXi shell, run the following command: # esxcli system ssh server config set -k clientaliveinterval -v 200 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 = 'clientaliveinterval' $arguments.value = '200' $esxcli.system.ssh.server.config.set.Invoke($arguments)

✔️ Fix

From an ESXi shell, run the following command: # esxcli system ssh server config set -k clientaliveinterval -v 200 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 = 'clientaliveinterval' $arguments.value = '200' $esxcli.system.ssh.server.config.set.Invoke($arguments)