Vulnerability Discussion

If the pam_faillock.so module is not loaded, the system will not correctly lock out accounts to prevent password guessing attacks.

Check

Verify RHEL 10 includes the pam_faillock.so module in the "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" file:

$ sudo grep pam_faillock.so /etc/pam.d/password-auth
auth required pam_faillock.so preauth
auth required pam_faillock.so authfail
account required pam_faillock.so

If the pam_faillock.so module is not present in the "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" file with the "preauth" line listed before pam_unix.so, this is a finding.

If the system administrator can demonstrate that the required configuration is contained in a Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) configuration file included or substacked from the "system-auth" file, this is not a finding.

Fix

Configure RHEL 10 to include the use of the pam_faillock.so module in the "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" file. If PAM is managed with "authselect", enable the feature with the following command:

$ sudo authselect enable-feature with-faillock

Otherwise, add/modify the appropriate sections of the "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" file to match the following lines:

Note: The "preauth" line must be listed before pam_unix.so.

auth required pam_faillock.so preauth
auth required pam_faillock.so authfail
account required pam_faillock.so