The macOS system must initiate a session lock after a 15-minute period of inactivity.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-252439	APPL-12-000004	SV-252439r816131_rule		Medium

Description
A screen saver must be enabled and set to require a password to unlock. The timeout should be set to 15 minutes of inactivity. This mitigates the risk that a user might forget to manually lock the screen before stepping away from the computer. A session time-out lock is a temporary action taken when a user stops work and moves away from the immediate physical vicinity of the information system but does not log out because of the temporary nature of the absence. Rather than relying on the user to manually lock their operating system session prior to vacating the vicinity, operating systems need to be able to identify when a user's session has idled and take action to initiate the session lock.

Description

A screen saver must be enabled and set to require a password to unlock. The timeout should be set to 15 minutes of inactivity. This mitigates the risk that a user might forget to manually lock the screen before stepping away from the computer. A session time-out lock is a temporary action taken when a user stops work and moves away from the immediate physical vicinity of the information system but does not log out because of the temporary nature of the absence. Rather than relying on the user to manually lock their operating system session prior to vacating the vicinity, operating systems need to be able to identify when a user's session has idled and take action to initiate the session lock.

STIG	Date
Apple macOS 12 (Monterey) Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-02-13

Details

Check Text ( C-55895r816129_chk )
To check if the system has a configuration profile configured to enable the screen saver after a time-out period, run the following command: /usr/sbin/system_profiler SPConfigurationProfileDataType \| /usr/bin/grep loginWindowIdleTime If there is no result, or if "loginWindowIdleTime" is not set to "900" seconds or less, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-55845r816130_fix)
This setting is enforced using the "Login Window Policy" configuration profile.