The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not allow accounts configured with blank or null passwords.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-204424	RHEL-07-010290	SV-204424r880839_rule		High

Description
If an account has an empty password, anyone could log on 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 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-09-08

Details

Check Text ( C-4548r880837_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 on with accounts with empty passwords. If null passwords can be used, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-4548r880838_fix)
If an account is configured for password authentication but does not have an assigned password, it may be possible to log on to the account without authenticating. 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. Note: Per requirement RHEL-07-010199, RHEL 7 must be configured to not overwrite custom authentication configuration settings while using the authconfig utility, otherwise manual changes to the listed files will be overwritten whenever the authconfig utility is used.

Fix Text (F-4548r880838_fix)

If an account is configured for password authentication but does not have an assigned password, it may be possible to log on to the account without authenticating.

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.

Note: Per requirement RHEL-07-010199, RHEL 7 must be configured to not overwrite custom authentication configuration settings while using the authconfig utility, otherwise manual changes to the listed files will be overwritten whenever the authconfig utility is used.