Title

The system must disable accounts after three consecutive unsuccessful login attempts. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Allowing continued access to accounts on the system exposes them to brute-force password-guessing attacks.

Check Content

Verify RETRIES is set in the login file. # grep ^RETRIES /etc/default/login If the output is not RETRIES=3 or fewer, this is a finding. Verify the account locks after invalid login attempts. # grep ^LOCK_AFTER_RETRIES /etc/security/policy.conf If the output is not LOCK_AFTER_RETRIES=YES, this is a finding. For each user in the system, use the command: # userattr lock_after_retries [username] to determine if the user overrides the system value. If the output of this command is "no", this is a finding.

Fix Text

The root role is required. # pfedit /etc/default/login Change the line: #RETRIES=5 to read RETRIES=3 pfedit /etc/security/policy.conf Change the line containing #LOCK_AFTER_RETRIES to read: LOCK_AFTER_RETRIES=YES If a user has lock_after_retries set to "no", update the user's attributes using the command: # usermod -K lock_after_retries=yes [username]

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-216099r603268_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-216099

Group Title: SRG-OS-000021

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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