RHEL 9 must automatically lock the root account until the root account is released by an administrator when three unsuccessful logon attempts occur during a 15-minute time period.

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RHEL 9 must automatically lock the root account until the root account is released by an administrator when three unsuccessful logon attempts occur during a 15-minute time period.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-258055	RHEL-09-411080	SV-258055r958736_rule		Medium

Description
By limiting the number of failed logon attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, also known as brute-forcing, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000329-GPOS-00128, SRG-OS-000021-GPOS-00005

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2024-06-04

Details

Check Text ( C-61796r926150_chk )
Verify RHEL 9 is configured to lock the root account after three unsuccessful logon attempts with the command: $ grep even_deny_root /etc/security/faillock.conf even_deny_root If the "even_deny_root" option is not set, is missing or commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-61720r926151_fix)
Configure RHEL 9 to lock out the "root" account after a number of incorrect login attempts using "pam_faillock.so", first enable the feature using the following command: $ sudo authselect enable-feature with-faillock Then edit the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file as follows: add or uncomment the following line: even_deny_root