The Cisco switch must be configured to enforce the limit of three consecutive invalid logon attempts, after which time it must disconnect the session.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-220480	SRG-APP-000065-NDM-000214	CISC-ND-000150	SV-220480r960840_rule	2025-05-19	3

Description
By limiting the number of failed logon attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute-forcing, is reduced.

ℹ️ Check
Review the Cisco switch configuration to verify that it enforces the limit of three consecutive invalid logon attempts as shown in the example below: ssh login-attempts 3 If the Cisco switch is not configured to enforce the limit of three consecutive invalid logon attempts, this is a finding. NOTE: The NX-OS switch does not lock out the account, it disconnects the session. The AAA server will lock out the user account on three failed attempts.

ℹ️ Check

Review the Cisco switch configuration to verify that it enforces the limit of three consecutive invalid logon attempts as shown in the example below: ssh login-attempts 3 If the Cisco switch is not configured to enforce the limit of three consecutive invalid logon attempts, this is a finding. NOTE: The NX-OS switch does not lock out the account, it disconnects the session. The AAA server will lock out the user account on three failed attempts.

✔️ Fix
Configure the Cisco switch to enforce the limit of three consecutive invalid logon attempts as shown in the example below: SW2(config)# ssh login-attempts 3