SV-204426r982189: The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must disable account identifiers (individuals, groups, roles, and devices) if the password expires. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 STIG SCAP Benchmark

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must disable account identifiers (individuals, groups, roles, and devices) if the password expires.

Description

Discussion Text

Inactive identifiers pose a risk to systems and applications because attackers may exploit an inactive identifier and potentially obtain undetected access to the system. Owners of inactive accounts will not notice if unauthorized access to their user account has been obtained. Operating systems need to track periods of inactivity and disable application identifiers after 35 days of inactivity.

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

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000795SV-86565V-71941

References

DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 2899

Checks

DISA STIG (Manual Reference)

If passwords are not being used for authentication, this is Not Applicable.

Verify the operating system disables account identifiers (individuals, groups, roles, and devices) after the password has expired with the following command:

     # grep -i inactive /etc/default/useradd
     INACTIVE=35

If "INACTIVE" is set to "-1", a value greater than "35", is commented out, or is not defined, this is a finding.

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.rhel7:def:443
# The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must disable account identifiers (individuals, groups, roles, and devices) if the password expires.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# textfilecontent54_object (textfilecontent54_test)
test_1() {
  ( [ "$(sed -En 's/^\s*INACTIVE\s*=\s*(\d+)\s*$/\1/p' '/etc/default/useradd')" -le 35 ] ) && ( [ "$(sed -En 's/^\s*INACTIVE\s*=\s*(\d+)\s*$/\1/p' '/etc/default/useradd')" -ge 0 ] )
}

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
# DISA STIG / SCAP compliance check for Red Hat Enterprise Linux password expiration inactivity setting
if [ ! -f "/etc/default/useradd" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if grep -q "^\\s*INACTIVE\\s*=\\s*(\\d+)\\s*$" /etc/default/useradd; then
  MATCH=$(grep -oP "^\\s*INACTIVE\\s*=\\s*(\\d+)\\s*$" /etc/default/useradd | grep -oP "(\d+)")
  if [ "$MATCH" -le 35 ] && [ "$MATCH" -ge 0 ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
fi
echo "FAIL"; exit 1

Remediation

Configure the operating system to disable account identifiers (individuals, groups, roles, and devices) 35 days after the password has expired.

Add the following line to "/etc/default/useradd" (or modify the line to have the required value):

     INACTIVE=35

DOD recommendation is 35 days, but a lower value is acceptable. The value "-1" will disable this feature, and "0" will disable the account immediately after the password expires.