VMware vSphere 7.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS Security Technical Implementation Guide

The VMware vSphere 7.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS Security Technical Implementation Guide (V1 R5) has 113 STIG checks. New to STIG checklists? Read What is a STIG checklist?, CKL vs CKLB, and STIG vs SCAP benchmark.

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Severity

Version

V1 · R5

CurrentPublished Wed Sep 30 2026 What changed in V1R5

The Photon operating system must send Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) timestamps.

VMware vSphere 7.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS Security Technical Implementation Guide

Assessment Title

Rule Text

The Photon operating system must send Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) timestamps.

Description

Discussion Text

TCP timestamps are used to provide protection against wrapped sequence numbers. It is possible to calculate system uptime (and boot time) by analyzing TCP timestamps. These calculated uptimes can help a bad actor in determining likely patch levels for vulnerabilities.

New to STIG checklists? Read What is a STIG checklist? and CKL vs CKLB.

Objective

V-256576

Rule

SV-256576r1268251_rule

Severity

medium

Rule Version

PHTN-30-000107

Documentable

false

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Rev 5

Assessment Procedure

Check Text

At the command line, run the following command:

# /sbin/sysctl -a --pattern "net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps$"

Expected result:

net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps = 1

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

Implementation Procedure

Fix Text

At the command line, run the following commands:

# sed -i -e "/^net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps/d" /etc/sysctl.conf
# echo net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps=1>>/etc/sysctl.conf
# /sbin/sysctl --load

STIG check 99 of 113 in the VMware vSphere 7.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS STIG checklist

← Previous · V-256575The Photon operating system must not perform IPv4 packet forwarding.Next · V-256577 →The Photon operating system must be configured to protect the Secure Shell (SSH) public host key from unauthorized modification.