The system must disable accounts after three consecutive unsuccessful logon attempts.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-38573	RHEL-06-000061	SV-50374r3_rule		Medium

Description
Locking out user accounts after a number of incorrect attempts prevents direct password guessing attacks.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2015-03-06

Details

Check Text ( C-46131r3_chk )
To ensure the failed password attempt policy is configured correctly, run the following command: # grep pam_faillock /etc/pam.d/system-auth # grep pam_faillock /etc/pam.d/password-auth The output should show "deny=3" for both files. If that is not the case, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-43521r5_fix)
To configure the system to lock out accounts after a number of incorrect logon attempts using "pam_faillock.so": Add the following lines immediately below the "pam_unix.so" statement in the AUTH section of "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" and "/etc/pam.d/password-auth": auth [default=die] pam_faillock.so authfail deny=3 unlock_time=604800 fail_interval=900 auth required pam_faillock.so authsucc deny=3 unlock_time=604800 fail_interval=900 Note that any updates made to "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" and "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" may be overwritten by the "authconfig" program. The "authconfig" program should not be used.

Fix Text (F-43521r5_fix)

To configure the system to lock out accounts after a number of incorrect logon attempts using "pam_faillock.so":

Add the following lines immediately below the "pam_unix.so" statement in the AUTH section of "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" and "/etc/pam.d/password-auth":

auth [default=die] pam_faillock.so authfail deny=3 unlock_time=604800 fail_interval=900

auth required pam_faillock.so authsucc deny=3 unlock_time=604800 fail_interval=900

Note that any updates made to "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" and "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" may be overwritten by the "authconfig" program. The "authconfig" program should not be used.