RHEL 8 systems below version 8.2 must configure SELinux context type to allow the use of a non-default faillock tally directory.
An XCCDF Rule
Description
<VulnDiscussion>By limiting the number of failed logon attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute-force attacks, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account. From "Pam_Faillock" man pages: Note that the default directory that "pam_faillock" uses is usually cleared on system boot so the access will be reenabled after system reboot. If that is undesirable, a different tally directory must be set with the "dir" option. SELinux, enforcing a targeted policy, will require any non-default tally directory's security context type to match the default directory's security context type. Without updating the security context type, the pam_faillock module will not write failed login attempts to the non-default tally directory.</VulnDiscussion><FalsePositives></FalsePositives><FalseNegatives></FalseNegatives><Documentable>false</Documentable><Mitigations></Mitigations><SeverityOverrideGuidance></SeverityOverrideGuidance><PotentialImpacts></PotentialImpacts><ThirdPartyTools></ThirdPartyTools><MitigationControl></MitigationControl><Responsibility></Responsibility><IAControls></IAControls>
- ID
- SV-250316r1017357_rule
- Severity
- Medium
- References
- Updated
Remediation - Manual Procedure
Configure RHEL 8 to allow the use of a non-default faillock tally directory while SELinux enforces a targeted policy.
Update the /etc/selinux/targeted/contexts/files/file_contexts.local with "faillog_t" context type for the non-default faillock tally directory with the following command:
$ sudo semanage fcontext -a -t faillog_t "/var/log/faillock(/.*)?"