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RHEL-09-411090 RHEL 9 must maintain an account lock until the locked account is released by an administrator.

DISA STIG library V2R10
All changes in this version
first version loaded CAT II

Maps to AC-7 via CCI-000044, CCI-002238

Title

RHEL 9 must maintain an account lock until the locked account is released by an administrator.

Control

Verify RHEL 9 is configured to lock an account until released by an administrator after three unsuccessful logon attempts with the command: $ sudo grep -w unlock_time /etc/security/faillock.conf unlock_time = 0 If the "unlock_time" option is not set to "0" or the line is missing or commented out, this is a finding.

Discussion

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

Related controls

CCI-000044, CCI-002238

Fix

Configure RHEL 9 to lock an account until released by an administrator after three unsuccessful logon attempts with the command: $ sudo authselect enable-feature with-faillock Edit the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file as follows: unlock_time = 0