SV-271706r1091830: OL 9 SSHD must not allow blank passwords. | Oracle Linux 9 STIG SCAP Benchmark

Loading benchmark…

Assessment Title

Rule Text

OL 9 SSHD must not allow blank passwords.

Description

Discussion Text

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

How this relates to the STIG checklist: STIG vs SCAP benchmark.

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000766

References

DPMS Target Oracle Linux 9 DISA DPMS Target Oracle Linux 9 5680

SCC Automation Reference

The reconstructed evaluation script behind this rule's OVAL check(s) — every module a compound check combines, with this rule's own concrete values and DISA's SCC tool's real per-module mechanism curated from static teardown of SCC releases.

#!/bin/bash
# Reconstructed from oval:mil.disa.stig.ol9os:def:271706
# OL 9 SSHD must not allow blank passwords.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# /etc/ssh/sshd_config or /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/*:PermitEmptyPasswords == no
# textfilecontent54_object (textfilecontent54_test)
test_1() {
  ( (sed -En 's/^(?i)\s*PermitEmptyPasswords\s+(\w+)$/\1/p' '/etc/ssh/sshd_config') | grep -Pq '^(no|"no")$' ) || ( (grep -rhP --include='*' '^(?i)\s*PermitEmptyPasswords\s+(\w+)$' '/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d' | sed -En 's/^(?i)\s*PermitEmptyPasswords\s+(\w+)$/\1/p') | grep -Pq '^(no|"no")$' )
}

if test_1; then
  echo "PASS"
else
  echo "FAIL"
fi

Assessment Script Powered by AISandbox-executed

A standalone Shell script to assess this control automatically. Review before running it in your environment.

Syntax-checked and actually executed in an isolated sandbox (not the real system this checks) — confirmed to run without errors.

#!/bin/sh
# OVAL Definition: oval:mil.disa.stig.ol9os:def:271706
if [ ! -f "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if [ $(grep -E "^[[:space:]]*PermitEmptyPasswords[[:space:]]*=\s*no" /etc/ssh/sshd_config | wc -l) -gt 0 ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if [ -d "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d" ]; then
  for file in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/*; do
    if [ $(grep -E "^[[:space:]]*PermitEmptyPasswords[[:space:]]*=\s*no" "$file" | wc -l) -gt 0 ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
  done
fi
echo "FAIL"; exit 1

Remediation

Configure OL 9 to prevent SSH users from logging on with blank passwords by editing the following line in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" or in a file in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d":

PermitEmptyPasswords no

Restart the SSH daemon for the settings to take effect:

$ sudo systemctl restart sshd.service