STIGUI
V-256784CAT II — Medium severitySV-256784r960930_rule

vSphere UI log files must only be accessible by privileged users.

Rule version VCUI-70-000007 · STIG v1 · 2026-09-09

Discussion

Log data is essential in the investigation of events. If log data were to become compromised, competent forensic analysis and discovery of the true source of potentially malicious system activity would be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.

In addition, access to log records provides information an attacker could use to their advantage since each event record might contain communication ports, protocols, services, trust relationships, usernames, etc. The vSphere UI restricts all access to log files by default, but this configuration must be verified.

Satisfies: SRG-APP-000118-WSR-000068, SRG-APP-000119-WSR-000069, SRG-APP-000120-WSR-000070

Check

At the command prompt, run the following command:

# find /var/log/vmware/vsphere-ui/ -xdev -type f -a '(' -perm -o+w -o -not -user vsphere-ui -o -not -group users -a -not -group root ')' -exec ls -ld {} \; 

If any files are returned, this is a finding.

Fix

At the command prompt, run the following commands:

# chmod 644 /storage/log/vmware/vsphere-ui/logs/<file> 
# chown vsphere-ui:users /storage/log/vmware/vsphere-ui/logs/<file> 

Note: Substitute <file> with the listed file.

Identifiers

Group ID
V-256784
Group title
SRG-APP-000118-WSR-000068
Rule ID
SV-256784r960930_rule
Check ID
C-60459r889349_chk
Fix ID
F-60402r889350_fix