The operating system must automatically lock the account until the locked account is released by an administrator when three unsuccessful login attempts in 15 minutes are exceeded.

From Apple OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) Workstation Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-002238

SV-72901r1_rule The operating system must automatically lock the account until the locked account is released by an administrator when three unsuccessful login attempts in 15 minutes are exceeded.

Vulnerability discussion

By limiting the number of failed login attempts, the risk of unauthorized system access via user password guessing, otherwise known as brute forcing, is reduced. Limits are imposed by locking the account. Setting a lockout expiration of 15 minutes is an effective deterrent against brute forcing that also makes allowances for legitimate mistakes by users.

Check content

To check if the password policy is configured to disable an account for 15 minutes after 3 unsuccessful login attempts, run the following command: sudo pwpolicy getglobalpolicy | tr ' ' '\n' | grep 'maxFailedLoginAttempts\|minutesUntilFailedLoginReset' If the result is not 'maxFailedLoginAttempts=3' and 'minutesUntilFailedLoginReset=15', and password policy is not controlled by a directory server, this is a finding.

Fix text

To set the password policy, run the following command: sudo pwpolicy setglobalpolicy 'maxFailedLoginAttempts=3 minutesUntilFailedLoginReset=15'

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