The system must disable accounts after three consecutive unsuccessful login attempts.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-216099 | SRG-OS-000021 | SOL-11.1-040140 | SV-216099r958388_rule | 2026-02-19 | 3 |
Description
Allowing continued access to accounts on the system exposes them to brute-force password-guessing attacks.
ℹ️ Check
Verify RETRIES is set in the login file.
# grep ^RETRIES /etc/default/login
If the output is not RETRIES=3 or fewer, this is a finding.
Verify the account locks after invalid login attempts.
# grep ^LOCK_AFTER_RETRIES /etc/security/policy.conf
If the output is not LOCK_AFTER_RETRIES=YES, this is a finding.
For each user in the system, use the command:
# userattr lock_after_retries [username]
to determine if the user overrides the system value. If the output of this command is "no", this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
The root role is required.
# pfedit /etc/default/login
Change the line:
#RETRIES=5
to read
RETRIES=3
pfedit /etc/security/policy.conf
Change the line containing
#LOCK_AFTER_RETRIES
to read:
LOCK_AFTER_RETRIES=YES
If a user has lock_after_retries set to "no", update the user's attributes using the command:
# usermod -K lock_after_retries=yes [username]