The macOS system must initiate a session lock after a 15-minute period of inactivity.

From Apple OS X 10.13 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000057

SV-96183r1_rule The macOS system must initiate a session lock after a 15-minute period of inactivity.

Vulnerability discussion

A screen saver must be enabled and set to require a password to unlock. The timeout should be set to 15 minutes of inactivity. This mitigates the risk that a user might forget to manually lock the screen before stepping away from the computer.A session time-out lock is a temporary action taken when a user stops work and moves away from the immediate physical vicinity of the information system but does not log out because of the temporary nature of the absence. Rather than relying on the user to manually lock their operating system session prior to vacating the vicinity, operating systems need to be able to identify when a user's session has idled and take action to initiate the session lock.

Check content

To check if the system has a configuration profile configured to enable the screen saver after a time-out period, run the following command: /usr/sbin/system_profiler SPConfigurationProfileDataType | /usr/bin/grep loginWindowIdleTime The check should return a value of "900" or less for "loginWindowIdleTime". If it does not, this is a finding.

Fix text

This setting is enforced using the "Login Window Policy" configuration profile.

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