The Photon operating system must enforce a delay of at least four seconds between logon prompts following a failed logon attempt.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-258869	SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00226	PHTN-40-000206	SV-258869r1003654_rule	2024-07-11	2

Description
Limiting the number of logon attempts over a certain time interval reduces the chances that an unauthorized user may gain access to an account.

ℹ️ Check
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 required pam_unix.so auth required pam_faillock.so authfail auth optional pam_faildelay.so delay=4000000 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.

ℹ️ Check

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

✔️ Fix
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.