Title

System BIOS or system controllers supporting password protection must have administrator accounts/passwords configured, and no others. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

A system's BIOS or system controller handles the initial startup of a system and its configuration must be protected from unauthorized modification. When the BIOS or system controller supports the creation of user accounts or passwords, such protections must be used and accounts/passwords only assigned to system administrators. Failure to protect BIOS or system controller settings could result in Denial-of-Service or compromise of the system resulting from unauthorized configuration changes.

Check Content

On systems with a BIOS or system controller, verify a supervisor or administrator password is set. If a password is not set, this is a finding. If the BIOS or system controller supports user-level access in addition to supervisor/administrator access, determine if this access is enabled. If so, this is a finding. The exact procedure will be hardware-dependent, and the SA should be consulted to identify the specific configuration. In the event the BIOS or system controller is not accessible without adversely impacting (e.g., restarting) the system, the SA may be interviewed to determine compliance with the requirement.

Fix Text

Access the system's BIOS or system controller. Set a supervisor/administrator password if one has not been set. Disable a user-level password if one has been set.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-227983r603266_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-227983

Group Title: SRG-OS-000080

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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