STIGUI
V-270713CAT I — High severitySV-270713r1268251_rule

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS must not have accounts configured with blank or null passwords.

Rule version UBTU-24-300027 · STIG v1 · 2026-09-09

Discussion

If an account has an empty password, anyone could log on and run commands with the privileges of that account. Accounts with empty passwords must never be used in operational environments.

Check

Check the "/etc/shadow" file for blank passwords with the following command:

$ sudo awk -F: '!$2 {print $1}' /etc/shadow

If the command returns any results, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure all accounts on the system to have a password or lock the account with the following commands:

Perform a password reset: $ sudo passwd [username]

Lock an account: $ sudo passwd -l [username]

Identifiers

Group ID
V-270713
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227
Rule ID
SV-270713r1268251_rule
Check ID
C-74746r1066626_chk
Fix ID
F-74647r1066627_fix