Details

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.

The session lock is implemented at the point where session activity can be determined and/or controlled.

Solution

Configure the operating system to prevent a user from overriding a session lock after a 15-minute period of inactivity for graphical user interfaces.

Create a database to contain the system-wide screensaver settings (if it does not already exist) with the following command:

Note: The example below is using the database ‘local’ for the system, so if the system is using another database in /etc/dconf/profile/user, the file should be created under the appropriate subdirectory.

# touch /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/session

Add the setting to lock the session idle delay:

/org/gnome/desktop/session/idle-delay

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_RHEL_7_V3R5_STIG.ziphttps://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_RHEL_7_V3R5_STIG.zip

This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: Access Control.This control applies to the following type of system Unix.

References

• 800-53|AC-11a.
• CAT|II
• CCI|CCI-000057
• Rule-ID|SV-204400r603261_rule
• STIG-ID|RHEL-07-010082
• STIG-Legacy|SV-87809
• STIG-Legacy|V-73157
• Vuln-ID|V-204400

Source

• Tenable.com/audits