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RHEL 9 SSHD must not allow blank passwords.

Overview

Finding IDVersionRule IDIA ControlsSeverity
V-257984RHEL-09-255040SV-257984r1045026_ruleCCI-000766high
Description
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. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000106-GPOS-00053, SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00229, SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
STIGDate
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide2026-02-05

Related Frameworks

1 mapping across 4 frameworks
SCF0 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 3 hops (7) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

IAC-06Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
0.50
IAC-06.1Network Access to Privileged Accounts
0.50
IAC-06.2Network Access to Non-Privileged Accounts
0.50
IAC-06.3Local Access to Privileged Accounts
0.50
IAC-06.4Out-of-Band Multi-Factor Authentication
0.50
IAC-10.7Hardware Token-Based Authentication
0.50
TDA-02.2Information Assurance Enabled Products
0.50
NIST 800-530 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 2 hops (65) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

AC-10Concurrent Session Control
1.00
AC-11Device Lock
1.00
AC-11(1)Pattern-hiding Displays
1.00
AC-17(10)Authenticate Remote Commands
1.00
AC-2(1)Automated System Account Management
1.00
AC-2(10)Shared and Group Account Credential Change
1.00
AC-2(11)Usage Conditions
1.00
AC-2(2)Automated Temporary and Emergency Account Management
1.00
AC-2(3)Disable Accounts
1.00
AC-2(4)Automated Audit Actions
1.00

+55 more (top 10 by confidence shown)

NIST 800-1710 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 3 hops (1) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

3.5.3
1.00
CCI1 mapping
CCI-000766
1.00

Details

Check Text (C-257984r1045026_chk)

Verify that RHEL 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 (F-61649r1045025_fix)

To configure the system to prevent SSH users from logging on with blank passwords edit 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