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V-258120

CAT II (Medium)

RHEL 9 must not have accounts configured with blank or null passwords.

Rule ID

SV-258120r991589_rule

STIG

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V2R8

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

If an account has an empty password, anyone could log in and run commands with the privileges of that account. Accounts with empty passwords should never be used in operational environments.

Check Content

Verify that null or blank passwords cannot be used with the following command:

$ sudo awk -F: '!$2 {print $1}' /etc/shadow

If the command returns any results, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure all accounts on RHEL 9 to have a password or lock the account with the following commands:

Perform a password reset:

$ sudo passwd [username] 

To lock an account:

$ sudo passwd -l [username]