Title

RHEL 8 must not allow 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

To verify that null passwords cannot be used, run the following command: $ sudo /usr/sbin/sshd -dd 2>&1 | awk '/filename/ {print $4}' | tr -d '\r' | tr '\n' ' ' | xargs sudo grep -iH '^\s*permitemptypasswords' PermitEmptyPasswords no If "PermitEmptyPasswords" is set to "yes", this is a finding. If conflicting results are returned, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Edit the following line in "etc/ssh/sshd_config" to prevent logons with empty passwords. PermitEmptyPasswords no The SSH daemon must be restarted for the changes to take effect. To restart the SSH daemon, run the following command: $ sudo systemctl restart sshd.service

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-230380r1017191_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-230380

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

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