The Photon operating system must configure sshd to disallow authentication with an empty password.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-256552 | SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227 | PHTN-30-000083 | SV-256552r991589_rule | 2024-12-16 | 1 |
Description
Blank passwords are one of the first things an attacker checks for when probing a system. Even is the user somehow has a blank password on the operating system, sshd must not allow that user to log in.
ℹ️ Check
At the command line, run the following command:
# sshd -T|&grep -i PermitEmptyPasswords
Expected result:
PermitEmptyPasswords no
If the output does not match the expected result, this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
Navigate to and open:
/etc/ssh/sshd_config
Ensure the "PermitEmptyPasswords" line is uncommented and set to the following:
PermitEmptyPasswords no
At the command line, run the following command:
# systemctl restart sshd.service