Details

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.

Solution

If an account is configured for password authentication but does not have an assigned password, it may be possible to log on to the account without authentication.

Remove any instances of the ‘nullok’ option in ‘/etc/pam.d/system-auth’ and ‘/etc/pam.d/password-auth’ to prevent logons with empty passwords.

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_Oracle_Linux_6_V1R18_STIG.zip

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

References

• 800-53|CM-6b.
• CAT|I
• CCI|CCI-000366
• Group-ID|V-50737
• Rule-ID|SV-208807r603263_rule
• STIG-ID|OL6-00-000030
• STIG-Legacy|SV-64943
• STIG-Legacy|V-50737
• Vuln-ID|V-208807

Source

• Tenable.com/audits