Title

The system must not have accounts configured with blank or null passwords. (Cat I impact)

Discussion

If an account is configured for password authentication but does not have an assigned password, it may be possible to log into the account without authentication. If the root user is configured without a password, the entire system may be compromised. For user accounts not using password authentication, the account must be configured with a password lock value instead of a blank or null value.

Check Content

Verify the system will not log in accounts with blank passwords. # grep nullok /etc/pam.d/common-auth # grep nullok /etc/pam.d/common-account # grep nullok /etc/pam.d/common-password # grep nullok /etc/pam.d/common-session If an entry for nullok is found, this is a finding on Linux.

Fix Text

Edit /etc/pam.d/<configuration file> and remove the "nullok" setting. OR Use ‘pam-config’ to configure the affected module if it is supported by pam-config

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-44860r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-770

Group Title: GEN000560

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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