Title

Accounts on the Ubuntu operating system that are subject to three unsuccessful logon attempts within 15 minutes must be locked for the maximum configurable period. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

By limiting the number of failed logon attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute-forcing, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account.

Check Content

Verify the operating system automatically locks an account for the maximum period for which the system can be configured. Check that the system locks an account for the maximum period after three unsuccessful logon attempts within a period of 15 minutes with the following command: # grep pam_faillock.so /etc/pam.d/password-auth /etc/pam.d/system-auth auth required pam_faillock.so preauth silent audit deny=3 even_deny_root fail_interval=900 unlock_time=900 auth [default=die] pam_faillock.so authfail audit deny=3 even_deny_root fail_interval=900 unlock_time=900 account required pam_faillock.so If the "unlock_time" parameter is not set to "0", "never", or is set to a value less than "900" on both "auth" lines with the "pam_faillock.so" module, or is missing from these lines, this is a finding. Note: The maximum configurable value for "unlock_time" is "604800". If any line referencing the "pam_faillock.so" module is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the Ubuntu operating system to automatically lock an account for the maximum configurable period when three unsuccessful logon attempts are made by appending the following lines to the "etc/pam.d/password-auth" or "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" files" auth required pam_faillock.so preauth silent audit deny=3 even_deny_root fail_interval=900 unlock_time=900 auth [default=die] pam_faillock.so authfail audit deny=3 even_deny_root fail_interval=900 unlock_time=900 account required pam_faillock.so

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-214968r610931_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-214968

Group Title: SRG-OS-000329-GPOS-00128

Expert Comments

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