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.
An XCCDF Rule
Description
<VulnDiscussion>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</VulnDiscussion><FalsePositives></FalsePositives><FalseNegatives></FalseNegatives><Documentable>false</Documentable><Mitigations></Mitigations><SeverityOverrideGuidance></SeverityOverrideGuidance><PotentialImpacts></PotentialImpacts><ThirdPartyTools></ThirdPartyTools><MitigationControl></MitigationControl><Responsibility></Responsibility><IAControls></IAControls>
- ID
- SV-258055r926152_rule
- Severity
- Medium
- References
- Updated
Remediation - Manual Procedure
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: