TOSS must enforce the limit of five consecutive invalid logon attempts by a user during a 15-minute time period.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-252946 | SRG-OS-000021-GPOS-00005 | TOSS-04-020000 | SV-252946r1190835_rule | 2026-02-19 | 2 |
Description
By limiting the number of failed logon attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute-force attacks, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account.
ℹ️ Check
Verify the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file is configured to lock an account after three unsuccessful logon attempts within 15 minutes:
$ sudo grep -e "deny =" -e "fail_interval =" /etc/security/faillock.conf
deny = 3
fail_interval = 900
If the "deny" option is set to "0", more than "3", is missing, or is commented out, this is a finding.
If the "fail_interval" option is set to less than "900", is missing, or is commented out, this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Configure the operating system to lock an account when three unsuccessful logon attempts occur in 15 minutes.
Add/Modify the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file to match the following lines:
deny = 3
fail_interval = 900