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V-271706

CAT I (High)

OL 9 SSHD must not allow blank passwords.

Rule ID

SV-271706r1091830_rule

STIG

Oracle Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R5

CCIs

CCI-000766

Discussion

If an account has an empty password, anyone could log on and run commands with the privileges of that account. Accounts with empty passwords should never be used in operational environments.

Check Content

Verify that OL 9 remote access using SSH prevents logging on with a blank password with the following command:

$ sudo /usr/sbin/sshd -dd 2>&1 | awk '/filename/ {print $4}' | tr -d '\r' | tr '\n' ' ' | xargs sudo grep -iH '^\s*permitemptypasswords'
PermitEmptyPasswords no

If the "PermitEmptyPasswords" keyword is set to "yes", is missing, or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure OL 9 to prevent SSH users from logging on with blank passwords by editing the following line in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" or in a file in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d":

PermitEmptyPasswords no

Restart the SSH daemon for the settings to take effect:

$ sudo systemctl restart sshd.service