STIGQter: STIG Summary: VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide Version: 2 Release: 2 Benchmark Date: 01 Jul 2026:

The Photon operating system must include root when automatically locking an account until the locked account is released by an administrator when three unsuccessful logon attempts occur during a 15-minute time period.

DISA Rule

SV-258861r958388_rule

Vulnerability Number

V-258861

Group Title

SRG-OS-000021-GPOS-00005

Rule Version

PHTN-40-000195

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.

Weight

Fix Recommendation

Navigate to and open:

/etc/security/faillock.conf

Add or update the following lines:

even_deny_root

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.

Check Contents

At the command line, run the following command to verify accounts are locked after three consecutive invalid logon attempts by a user during a 15-minute time period includes the root account:

# grep '^even_deny_root' /etc/security/faillock.conf

Example result:

even_deny_root

If the "even_deny_root" option is not set, is missing or commented out, this is a finding.

Note: If faillock.conf is not used to configure pam_faillock.so then these options may be specified on the faillock lines in the system-auth and system-account files.

Vulnerability Number

V-258861

Documentable

False

Rule Version

PHTN-40-000195

Severity Override Guidance

Check Content Reference

Target Key

5569