Title

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not have accounts configured with blank or null passwords. (Cat I impact)

Discussion

If an account has an empty password, anyone could log on and run commands with the privileges of that account. Accounts with empty passwords should never be used in operational environments.

Check Content

Check the "/etc/shadow" file for blank passwords with the following command: $ sudo awk -F: '!$2 {print $1}' /etc/shadow If the command returns any results, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure all accounts on the system to have a password or lock the account with the following commands: Perform a password reset: $ sudo passwd [username] Lock an account: $ sudo passwd -l [username]

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-251702r809220_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-251702

Group Title: SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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