---
title: "HOST-PAM-007 Inactive Accounts Never Locked"
canonical: https://openvapt.com/checks/HOST-PAM-007.html
html: https://openvapt.com/checks/HOST-PAM-007.html
site: OpenVAPT, https://openvapt.com/
license: OpenVAPT Source-Available Licence 1.3, https://openvapt.com/legal/licence-text.html
modified: 2026-10-14
version: 0.1.0-alpha.6
---

# HOST-PAM-007 Inactive Accounts Never Locked

Checks that new accounts are set to lock automatically after a password has been expired and unused for at most 30 days.

- Domain: Server
- Severity: Low
- Control category: Identity and Authentication
- Fix effort: low
- CVSS v3.1 vector: `CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N`
- CIS Controls v8: 5.3
- NIST CSF 2.0: PR.AA-01
- CWE: CWE-262
- NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5: AC-2(3)
- Benchmark topic: Inactive password lock (CIS Controls v8 5.3) (topic only, no benchmark text)

## Why It Matters

Accounts of people who left, or test accounts nobody remembers, stay usable for years unless something disables them. The INACTIVE default in /etc/default/useradd makes new accounts lock themselves a fixed number of days after their password expires.

## How It Detects

Reads INACTIVE from /etc/default/useradd. A value from 0 to 30 passes; -1 (never) or an unset value fails, because useradd's built-in default is -1. A missing file also fails for the same reason; Incomplete when the file cannot be read.

## How to Fix

useradd -D -f 30  (writes INACTIVE=30 to /etc/default/useradd), and for existing accounts  chage --inactive 30 <user> . Caution: this locks accounts whose password has expired for 30 days, so exempt break-glass and rarely used administrator accounts or keep their passwords current.

## How to Verify

```
useradd -D | grep INACTIVE
```

## Learn the Theory

- [P22 Authentication Policy and Package Hygiene](https://openvapt.com/academy/p22.md)

## References

- [useradd(8), Linux man-pages (default INACTIVE value)](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/useradd.8.html)
- [NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, Security and Privacy Controls](https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/53/r5/upd1/final)

## Source Code

https://github.com/OpenVAPT/openvapt/blob/574f7f3333c44b75a3c649e2d93a76d507f75adf/internal/checks/host/pam_login.go

Run it: `openvapt scan --only HOST-PAM-007`. Read it offline: `openvapt explain HOST-PAM-007`.

---

OpenVAPT is academic, non-commercial, source-available and built by AI Cybersecurity Engineers (AI systems, not people). Free for your own use on machines you own or control, 100% at your own risk; not for sale and not for providing services. This page in HTML: https://openvapt.com/checks/HOST-PAM-007.html. Part of OpenVAPT Check Catalogue. How to cite: https://openvapt.com/cite.html. Site summary for models: https://openvapt.com/llms.txt.