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V-256552

CAT II (Medium)

The Photon operating system must configure sshd to disallow authentication with an empty password.

Rule ID

SV-256552r991589_rule

STIG

VMware vSphere 7.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R4

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

Blank passwords are one of the first things an attacker checks for when probing a system. Even is the user somehow has a blank password on the operating system, sshd must not allow that user to log in.

Check Content

At the command line, run the following command:

# sshd -T|&grep -i PermitEmptyPasswords

Expected result:

PermitEmptyPasswords no

If the output does not match the expected result, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Navigate to and open:

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

Ensure the "PermitEmptyPasswords" line is uncommented and set to the following:

PermitEmptyPasswords no

At the command line, run the following command:

# systemctl restart sshd.service