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V-274155

CAT II (Medium)

Amazon Linux 2023 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.

Rule ID

SV-274155r1120453_rule

STIG

Amazon Linux 2023 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R3

CCIs

CCI-002238

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.

Check Content

Verify Amazon Linux 2023 is configured to lock the root account after three unsuccessful logon attempts with the command:

$ grep even_deny_root /etc/security/faillock.conf
even_deny_root

If the "even_deny_root" option is not set, is missing or commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure Amazon Linux 2023 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:
 
add or uncomment the following line:
even_deny_root