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V-258869

CAT II (Medium)

The Photon operating system must enforce a delay of at least four seconds between logon prompts following a failed logon attempt.

Rule ID

SV-258869r933668_rule

STIG

VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R1

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

Limiting the number of logon attempts over a certain time interval reduces the chances that an unauthorized user may gain access to an account.

Check Content

At the command line, run the following command to verify the pam_faildelay.so module is used:

# grep '^auth' /etc/pam.d/system-auth

Example result:

auth required pam_faillock.so preauth
auth required pam_unix.so
auth required pam_faillock.so authfail
auth optional pam_faildelay.so delay=4000000

If the pam_faildelay.so module is not present with the delay set to at least four seconds, this is a finding.

Note: The delay is configured in milliseconds.

Fix Text

Navigate to and open:

/etc/pam.d/system-auth

Add or update the following line:

auth optional pam_faildelay.so delay=4000000

Note: On vCenter appliances, the equivalent file must be edited under "/etc/applmgmt/appliance", if one exists, for the changes to persist after a reboot.