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 to verify the pam_faildelay.so module is used:

# grep '^auth' /etc/pam.d/system-auth

Example result:

auth required pam_faillock.so preauth auth sufficient pam_unix.so auth required pam_faillock.so authfail auth optional pam_faildelay.so delay=4000000 auth required pam_deny.so

If the pam_faildelay.so module is not present with the delay set to at least four seconds, this is a finding.

Note: The delay is configured in microseconds.

Navigate to and open:

/etc/pam.d/system-auth

Add or update the following line:

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.