Disabling of CIM Server on VMWare ESXi

[Owk]

Hi, 

With the recent VCenter security vulnerability (VMware vCenter Server updates address remote code execution vulnerability in the vSphere Client (CVE-2021-21972)), one of the workaround was to disable the CIM server, could anyone advise the impact this would have on our Hyperflex cluster if any? Thanks.

How to Disable/Enable CIM Server on VMware ESXi (76372)

Cheers,

[Owk]

With the recent VCenter security vulnerability (VMware vCenter Server updates address remote code execution vulnerability in the vSphere Client (CVE-2021-21972)), one of the workaround was to disable the CIM server, could anyone advise the impact this would have on our Hyperflex cluster if any? Thanks.

How to Disable/Enable CIM Server on VMware ESXi (76372)

Cheers,

[dle6]

I too have this question.  Any implications if CIM server is stopped?  In my case, using UCS blades as ESXi servers....

[ryanbowm]

The guidance we have received is that it's fine to disable CIM in ESXi when necessary to avoid a security vulnerability. We haven't seen anyone report any issues after doing this however HX does rely on CIM and WBEM to gather certain properties from the ESXi hosts. What I would say is go ahead with the change and if you notice any problems such as blank areas in HX connect, open a TAC case so that we can take a look.