The Photon operating system must prevent leaking information of the existence of a user account.
Overview
| Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
| V-258859 | PHTN-40-000193 | SV-258859r933638_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. If the pam_faillock.so module is not configured to use the silent flag it could leak information about the existence or nonexistence of a user account. | ||||
| STIG | Date | |||
| VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2023-10-29 | |||
Related Frameworks
3 paths across 3 frameworks
Related Frameworks
NIST 800-531 mapping
AC-7
1.00
- DISA · V1R1 · disa_xccdf · related
- DISA · 2025-01-23 · disa_cci_list · equivalent
NIST 800-1711 mapping
3.1.8
1.00
- DISA · V1R1 · disa_xccdf · related
- DISA · 2025-01-23 · disa_cci_list · equivalent
- NIST · Rev 2 (Feb 2020, errata Jan 2021) · nist_800_171_app_d · equivalent
CCI1 mapping
CCI-000044
1.00
- DISA · V1R1 · disa_xccdf · related
Details
Check Text (C-258859r933638_chk)
At the command line, run the following command to verify account information is not leaked during the login process:
# grep '^silent' /etc/security/faillock.conf
Example result:
silent
If the "silent" option is not set, is missing or commented out, this is a finding.
Note: If faillock.conf is not used to configure pam_faillock.so then these options may be specified on the faillock lines in the system-auth and system-account files.
Fix Text (F-62508r933637_fix)
Navigate to and open:
/etc/security/faillock.conf
Add or update the following lines:
silent
Note: On vCenter appliances, the equivalent file must be edited under "/etc/applmgmt/appliance", if one exists, for the changes to persist after a reboot.