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V-269148

CAT II (Medium)

AlmaLinux OS 9 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-269148r1050030_rule

STIG

Cloud Linux AlmaLinux OS 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R6

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 AlmaLinux OS 9 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 is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure AlmaLinux OS 9 to lock the root account after a number of incorrect login attempts using pam_faillock.

First, enable the feature using the following command:

$ authselect enable-feature with-faillock

Then, add or uncomment the following line in the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file:

even_deny_root