STIGQter: STIG Summary: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide Version: 2 Release: 9 Benchmark Date: 01 Jul 2026:

RHEL 9 must automatically lock an account when three unsuccessful logon attempts occur during a 15-minute time period.

DISA Rule

SV-258056r1045143_rule

Vulnerability Number

V-258056

Group Title

SRG-OS-000329-GPOS-00128

Rule Version

RHEL-09-411085

Severity

CAT II

CCI(s)

• CCI-000044 - Enforce the organization-defined limit of consecutive invalid logon attempts by a user during the organization-defined time period.
• CCI-002238 - Automatically lock the account or node for either an organization-defined time period, until the locked account or node is released by an administrator, or delays the next logon prompt according to the organization-defined delay algorithm when the maximum number of unsuccessful logon attempts is exceeded.

Weight

10

Fix Recommendation

To configure RHEL 9 to lock out the "root" account after a number of incorrect logon attempts within 15 minutes using "pam_faillock.so", enable the feature using the following command:

$ sudo authselect enable-feature with-faillock

Then edit the "/etc/security/faillock.conf" file as follows:

fail_interval = 900

Check Contents

Note: If the system administrator demonstrates the use of an approved centralized account management method that locks an account after three unsuccessful logon attempts within a period of 15 minutes, this requirement is Not Applicable.

Verify RHEL 9 locks an account after three unsuccessful logon attempts within a period of 15 minutes with the following command:

$ sudo grep fail_interval /etc/security/faillock.conf

fail_interval = 900

If the "fail_interval" option is not set to "900" or less (but not "0"), the line is commented out, or the line is missing, this is a finding.

Vulnerability Number

V-258056

Documentable

False

Rule Version

RHEL-09-411085

Severity Override Guidance

Note: If the system administrator demonstrates the use of an approved centralized account management method that locks an account after three unsuccessful logon attempts within a period of 15 minutes, this requirement is Not Applicable.

Verify RHEL 9 locks an account after three unsuccessful logon attempts within a period of 15 minutes with the following command:

$ sudo grep fail_interval /etc/security/faillock.conf

fail_interval = 900

If the "fail_interval" option is not set to "900" or less (but not "0"), the line is commented out, or the line is missing, this is a finding.

Check Content Reference

M

Target Key

5551