The Photon operating system must enforce a delay of at least four seconds between logon prompts following a failed logon attempt.

Limiting the number of logon attempts over a certain time interval reduces the chances that an unauthorized user may gain access to an account.

At the command line, run the following command:

# grep pam_faildelay /etc/pam.d/system-auth|grep --color=always "delay="

Expected result:

auth optional pam_faildelay.so delay=4000000

If the output does not match the expected result, this is a finding.

Navigate to and open:

/etc/pam.d/system-auth

Remove any existing "pam_faildelay" line and add the following line at the end of the file:

auth optional pam_faildelay.so delay=4000000

Note: On vCenter appliances, the equivalent file must be edited under "/etc/applmgmt/appliance", if one exists, for the changes to persist after a reboot.