The SUSE operating system must lock an account after three consecutive invalid access attempts.

By limiting the number of failed access 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. The pam_tally2.so module maintains a count of attempted accesses. This includes user name entry into a logon field as well as password entry. With counting access attempts, it is possible to lock an account without presenting a password into the password field. This should be taken into consideration as it poses as an avenue for denial of service.