RHEL 9 must terminate idle user sessions.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-258077 | SRG-OS-000163-GPOS-00072 | RHEL-09-412080 | SV-258077r1155659_rule | 2026-02-05 | 2 |
Description
Terminating an idle session within a short time period reduces the window of opportunity for unauthorized personnel to take control of a management session enabled on the console or console port that has been left unattended.
ℹ️ Check
Verify RHEL 9 logs out sessions that are idle for 10 minutes with the following command:
$ systemd-analyze cat-config systemd/logind.conf | grep StopIdleSessionSec
#StopIdleSessionSec=infinity
StopIdleSessionSec=600
If "StopIdleSessionSec" is not configured to "600" seconds, this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Configure RHEL 9 to log out idle sessions.
Create the directory if necessary:
$ mkdir -p /etc/systemd/logind.conf.d/
Create a *.conf file in /etc/systemd/logind.conf.d/ with the following content:
[Login]
StopIdleSessionSec=600
KillUserProcesses=no
Restart systemd-logind:
$ systemctl restart systemd-logind