The system must not have accounts configured with blank or null passwords.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-217868	RHEL-06-000030	SV-217868r505923_rule		High

Description
If an account has an empty password, anyone could log in and run commands with the privileges of that account. Accounts with empty passwords should never be used in operational environments.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2020-09-03

Details

Check Text ( C-19349r376619_chk )
To verify that null passwords cannot be used, run the following command: # grep nullok /etc/pam.d/system-auth /etc/pam.d/password-auth If this produces any output, it may be possible to log into accounts with empty passwords. If NULL passwords can be used, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-19347r376620_fix)
If an account is configured for password authentication but does not have an assigned password, it may be possible to log onto the account without authentication. Remove any instances of the "nullok" option in "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" and "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" to prevent logons with empty passwords.