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Check: RHEL-09-255040

RHEL 9 STIG: RHEL-09-255040 (in version v1 r3)

Title

RHEL 9 SSHD must not allow blank 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. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000106-GPOS-00053, SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00229, SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227

Check Content

Verify that RHEL 9 remote access using SSH prevents logging on with a blank password with 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' PermitEmptyPassword no If the "PermitEmptyPassword" keyword is set to "yes", is missing, or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text

To configure the system to prevent SSH users from logging on with blank passwords edit the following line in "etc/ssh/sshd_config": PermitEmptyPasswords no Restart the SSH daemon for the settings to take effect: $ sudo systemctl restart sshd.service

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-257984r952179_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-257984

Group Title: SRG-OS-000106-GPOS-00053

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CCIs

CCIs tied to check.

Number	Definition
CCI-000366	The organization implements the security configuration settings.
CCI-000766	The information system implements multifactor authentication for network access to non-privileged accounts.

Controls

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

Number	Title
CM-6	Configuration Settings
IA-2 (2)	Network Access To Non-Privileged Accounts