The ESXi host must not use the default Active Directory ESX Admin group.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-258796	SRG-OS-000480-VMM-002000	ESXI-80-000241	SV-258796r933449_rule	2023-10-11	1

Description
When adding ESXi hosts to Active Directory, all user/group accounts assigned to the Active Directory group "ESX Admins" will have full administrative access to the host. If this group is not controlled or known to the system administrators, it may be used for inappropriate access to the host. Therefore, the default group must be changed to a site-specific Active Directory group and membership must be severely restricted.

Description

When adding ESXi hosts to Active Directory, all user/group accounts assigned to the Active Directory group "ESX Admins" will have full administrative access to the host. If this group is not controlled or known to the system administrators, it may be used for inappropriate access to the host. Therefore, the default group must be changed to a site-specific Active Directory group and membership must be severely restricted.

ℹ️ Check
For systems that do not use Active Directory, this is not applicable. From the vSphere Client, go to Hosts and Clusters. Select the ESXi Host >> Configure >> System >> Advanced System Settings. Select the "Config.HostAgent.plugins.hostsvc.esxAdminsGroup" value and verify it is not set to "ESX Admins". or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following command: Get-VMHost \| Get-AdvancedSetting -Name Config.HostAgent.plugins.hostsvc.esxAdminsGroup If the "Config.HostAgent.plugins.hostsvc.esxAdminsGroup" setting is set to "ESX Admins", this is a finding.

ℹ️ Check

For systems that do not use Active Directory, this is not applicable. From the vSphere Client, go to Hosts and Clusters. Select the ESXi Host >> Configure >> System >> Advanced System Settings. Select the "Config.HostAgent.plugins.hostsvc.esxAdminsGroup" value and verify it is not set to "ESX Admins". or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following command: Get-VMHost | Get-AdvancedSetting -Name Config.HostAgent.plugins.hostsvc.esxAdminsGroup If the "Config.HostAgent.plugins.hostsvc.esxAdminsGroup" setting is set to "ESX Admins", this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
From the vSphere Client, go to Hosts and Clusters. Select the ESXi Host >> Configure >> System >> Advanced System Settings. Click "Edit". Select the "Config.HostAgent.plugins.hostsvc.esxAdminsGroup" key and configure its value to an appropriate Active Directory group other than "ESX Admins". or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following command: Get-VMHost \| Get-AdvancedSetting -Name Config.HostAgent.plugins.hostsvc.esxAdminsGroup \| Set-AdvancedSetting -Value "<site specific AD group>" Note: Changing the group name does not remove the permissions of the previous group.

✔️ Fix

From the vSphere Client, go to Hosts and Clusters. Select the ESXi Host >> Configure >> System >> Advanced System Settings. Click "Edit". Select the "Config.HostAgent.plugins.hostsvc.esxAdminsGroup" key and configure its value to an appropriate Active Directory group other than "ESX Admins". or From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following command: Get-VMHost | Get-AdvancedSetting -Name Config.HostAgent.plugins.hostsvc.esxAdminsGroup | Set-AdvancedSetting -Value "<site specific AD group>" Note: Changing the group name does not remove the permissions of the previous group.