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V-252946

CAT II (Medium)

TOSS must enforce the limit of five consecutive invalid logon attempts by a user during a 15-minute time period.

Rule ID

SV-252946r1190835_rule

STIG

Tri-Lab Operating System Stack (TOSS) 4 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V2R5

CCIs

CCI-000044

Discussion

By limiting the number of failed logon attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute-force attacks, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account.

Check Content

Verify the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file is configured to lock an account after three unsuccessful logon attempts within 15 minutes:

$ sudo grep -e "deny =" -e "fail_interval =" /etc/security/faillock.conf
deny = 3
fail_interval = 900

If the "deny" option is set to "0", more than "3", is missing, or is commented out, this is a finding.
If the "fail_interval" option is set to less than "900", is missing, or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the operating system to lock an account when three unsuccessful logon attempts occur in 15 minutes.

Add/Modify the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file to match the following lines:

deny = 3
fail_interval = 900