RHEL 10 must configure the use of the pam_faillock.so module in the "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" file.
Overview
| Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
| V-281213 | RHEL-10-600610 | SV-281213r1166591_rule | CCI-000044 | medium |
| Description | ||||
| If the pam_faillock.so module is not loaded, the system will not correctly lock out accounts to prevent password guessing attacks. | ||||
| STIG | Date | |||
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2026-03-11 | |||
Details
Check Text (C-281213r1166591_chk)
Verify RHEL 10 includes the pam_faillock.so module in the "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" file:
$ sudo grep pam_faillock.so /etc/pam.d/password-auth
auth required pam_faillock.so preauth
auth required pam_faillock.so authfail
account required pam_faillock.so
If the pam_faillock.so module is not present in the "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" file with the "preauth" line listed before pam_unix.so, this is a finding.
If the system administrator can demonstrate that the required configuration is contained in a Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) configuration file included or substacked from the "system-auth" file, this is not a finding.
Fix Text (F-85679r1166590_fix)
Configure RHEL 10 to include the use of the pam_faillock.so module in the "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" file. If PAM is managed with "authselect", enable the feature with the following command:
$ sudo authselect enable-feature with-faillock
Otherwise, add/modify the appropriate sections of the "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" file to match the following lines:
Note: The "preauth" line must be listed before pam_unix.so.
auth required pam_faillock.so preauth
auth required pam_faillock.so authfail
account required pam_faillock.so