Check: RHEL-08-020015
RHEL 8 STIG:
RHEL-08-020015
(in versions v1 r14 through v1 r3)
Title
RHEL 8 must automatically lock an account until the locked account is released by an administrator when three unsuccessful logon attempts occur during a 15-minute time 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-force attacks, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account. In RHEL 8.2 the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file was incorporated to centralize the configuration of the pam_faillock.so module. Also introduced is a "local_users_only" option that will only track failed user authentication attempts for local users in /etc/passwd and ignore centralized (AD, IdM, LDAP, etc.) users to allow the centralized platform to solely manage user lockout. From "faillock.conf" man pages: Note that the default directory that "pam_faillock" uses is usually cleared on system boot so the access will be reenabled after system reboot. If that is undesirable a different tally directory must be set with the "dir" option. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000021-GPOS-00005, SRG-OS-000329-GPOS-00128
Check Content
Note: This check applies to RHEL versions 8.2 or newer, if the system is RHEL version 8.0 or 8.1, this check is not applicable. Verify the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file is configured to lock an account until released by an administrator after three unsuccessful logon attempts: $ sudo grep 'unlock_time =' /etc/security/faillock.conf unlock_time = 0 If the "unlock_time" option is not set to "0", is missing or commented out, this is a finding.
Fix Text
Configure the operating system to lock an account until released by an administrator when three unsuccessful logon attempts occur in 15 minutes. Add/Modify the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file to match the following line: unlock_time = 0
Additional Identifiers
Rule ID: SV-230337r743972_rule
Vulnerability ID: V-230337
Group Title: SRG-OS-000021-GPOS-00005
Expert Comments
CCIs
Number | Definition |
---|---|
CCI-000044 |
The information system enforces the organization-defined limit of consecutive invalid logon attempts by a user during the organization-defined time period. |
Controls
Number | Title |
---|---|
AC-7 |
Unsuccessful Logon Attempts |