Title

The operating system must automatically remove or disable temporary user accounts after 72 hours. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

If temporary user accounts remain active when no longer needed or for an excessive period, these accounts may be used to gain unauthorized access. To mitigate this risk, automated termination of all temporary accounts must be set upon account creation. Temporary accounts are established as part of normal account activation procedures when there is a need for short-term accounts without the demand for immediacy in account activation. If temporary accounts are used, the operating system must be configured to automatically terminate these types of accounts after a DoD-defined time period of 72 hours. To address access requirements, many operating systems may be integrated with enterprise-level authentication/access mechanisms that meet or exceed access control policy requirements. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000002-GPOS-00002

Check Content

Verify the operating system automatically removes or disables local temporary user accounts after 72 hours. If it does not, this is a finding. List all the user accounts on the system as well as their expiration times: # cut -d: -f1,7 /etc/master.passwd Ask the SA which accounts are temporary accounts, if any. If any temporary accounts do not have an expiration within 72 hours, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the operating system to automatically remove or disable local temporary user accounts after 72 hours.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID:

Vulnerability ID: V-20

Group Title:

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.