STIGUI
V-256664CAT II — Medium severitySV-256664r961167_rule

VAMI must disable directory browsing.

Rule version VCLD-70-000020 · STIG v1 · 2026-08-31

Discussion

The goal is to completely control the web user's experience in navigating any portion of the web document root directories. Ensuring all web content directories have at least the equivalent of an "index.html" file is a significant factor to accomplish this end.

Enumeration techniques, such as Uniform Resource Locator (URL) parameter manipulation, rely on being able to obtain information about the web server's directory structure by locating directories without default pages. In this scenario, the web server will display to the user a listing of the files in the directory being accessed. By having a default hosted application web page, the anonymous web user will not obtain directory browsing information or an error message that reveals the server type and version.

Check

At the command prompt, run the following command:

# /opt/vmware/sbin/vami-lighttpd -p -f /opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf 2>/dev/null|grep "dir-listing.activate"|sed 's: ::g'

Expected result:

dir-listing.activate="disable"

If the output does not match the expected result, this is a finding.

Note: The command must be run from a bash shell and not from a shell generated by the "appliance shell". Use the "chsh" command to change the shell for the account to "/bin/bash". Refer to KB Article 2100508 for more details:

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2100508

Fix

Navigate to and open:

/opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

Add or reconfigure the following value:

dir-listing.activate = "disable"

Restart the service with the following command:

# vmon-cli --restart applmgmt

Identifiers

Group ID
V-256664
Group title
SRG-APP-000266-WSR-000142
Rule ID
SV-256664r961167_rule
Check ID
C-60339r888512_chk
Fix ID
F-60282r888513_fix