Title

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must disable account identifiers (individuals, groups, roles, and devices) if the password expires. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Inactive identifiers pose a risk to systems and applications because attackers may exploit an inactive identifier and potentially obtain undetected access to the system. Owners of inactive accounts will not notice if unauthorized access to their user account has been obtained. Operating systems need to track periods of inactivity and disable application identifiers after 35 days of inactivity.

Check Content

If passwords are not being used for authentication, this is Not Applicable. Verify the operating system disables account identifiers (individuals, groups, roles, and devices) after the password expires with the following command: # grep -i inactive /etc/default/useradd INACTIVE=35 If "INACTIVE" is set to "-1", a value greater than "35", is commented out, or is not defined, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the operating system to disable account identifiers (individuals, groups, roles, and devices) 35 days after the password expires. Add the following line to "/etc/default/useradd" (or modify the line to have the required value): INACTIVE=35 DoD recommendation is 35 days, but a lower value is acceptable. The value "-1" will disable this feature, and "0" will disable the account immediately after the password expires.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-204426r809190_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-204426

Group Title: SRG-OS-000118-GPOS-00060

Expert Comments

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