SV-25015r2: The system must lockout accounts after 3 invalid logon attempts within a specified time period. | Windows 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

The system must lockout accounts after 3 invalid logon attempts within a specified time period.

Description

Discussion Text

The account lockout feature, when enabled, prevents brute-force password attacks on the system. The higher this value is, the less effective the account lockout feature will be in protecting the local system. The number of bad logon attempts must be reasonably small to minimize the possibility of a successful password attack, while allowing for honest errors made during a normal user logon.

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

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000044CCE-9136-3

Additional Details

Third-Party Tools

Responsibility

System Administrator

References

DPMS Target Windows 7 DISA DPMS Target Windows 7 1712

Checks

OVAL

oval:mil.disa.fso.windows:var:365100 ← xccdf_mil.disa.stig_value_account_lockout_threshold_var

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.

# Windows PowerShell
# Reconstructed from oval:mil.disa.fso.windows:def:3651
# The system must lockout accounts after 3 invalid logon attempts within a specified time period.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# Verifies 'Account lockout threshold' is set to '3' or less
# lockoutpolicy_object (lockoutpolicy_test)
function test_1 {
  return (((net accounts | Select-String 'Lockout threshold') -replace '[^0-9]','') -le 3)
}
# Verifies 'Account lockout threshold' is not set to '0'
# lockoutpolicy_object (lockoutpolicy_test)
function test_2 {
  return (((net accounts | Select-String 'Lockout threshold') -replace '[^0-9]','') -gt 0)
}

if ((test_1 -and test_2)) {
  Write-Output "PASS"
} else {
  Write-Output "FAIL"
}

Assessment Script Powered by AISyntax-verified

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

Syntax-checked as valid PowerShell. Not executed here — running it for real needs the actual windows_7 target this check assesses.

# OVAL Definition: oval:mil.disa.fso.windows:def:3651
$lockoutThreshold = (Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_ComputerSecuritySetting).AccountLockoutThreshold
if (($lockoutThreshold -le 3) -and ($lockoutThreshold -ne 0)) { Write-Output "PASS"; Exit 0 } else { Write-Output "FAIL"; Exit 1 }

Remediation

Configure the policy value for Computer Configuration >> Windows Settings >> Security Settings >> Account Policies >> Account Lockout Policy >> "Account lockout threshold" to "3" or less invalid logon attempts (excluding "0", which is unacceptable).