OL 8 systems, versions 8.2 and above, must automatically lock an account when three unsuccessful logon attempts occur.
Overview
| Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
| V-248653 | OL08-00-020011 | SV-248653r958388_rule | CCI-000044 | medium |
| Description | ||||
| 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. In OL 8.2, the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file was incorporated to centralize the configuration of the "pam_faillock.so" module. Also introduced is a "local_users_only" option that will only track failed user authentication attempts for local users in "/etc/passwd" and ignore centralized (AD, IdM, LDAP, etc.) users to allow the centralized platform to solely manage user lockout. From "faillock.conf" man pages: Note that the default directory that "pam_faillock" uses is usually cleared on system boot so the access will be reenabled after system reboot. If that is undesirable, a different tally directory must be set with the "dir" option. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000021-GPOS-00005, SRG-OS-000329-GPOS-00128 | ||||
| STIG | Date | |||
| Oracle Linux 8 Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2025-05-13 | |||
Details
Check Text (C-248653r958388_chk)
Note: This check applies to OL versions 8.2 or newer. If the system is OL version 8.0 or 8.1, this check is not applicable.
Verify the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file is configured to lock an account after three unsuccessful logon attempts:
$ sudo grep 'deny =' /etc/security/faillock.conf
deny = 3
If the "deny" option is not set to "3" or less (but not "0") or is missing or commented out, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-52041r779524_fix)
Configure OL 8 to lock an account when three unsuccessful logon attempts occur.
Add/modify the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file to match the following line:
deny = 3