RHEL 9 SSHD must not allow blank passwords.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| high | V-257984 | SRG-OS-000106-GPOS-00053 | RHEL-09-255040 | SV-257984r1045026_rule | 2025-02-27 | 2 |
| 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 |
| ℹ️ Check |
|---|
| 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 |
|---|
| 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 |