---
title: "HOST-PWD-004 No Account Lockout After Failed Logins"
canonical: https://openvapt.com/checks/HOST-PWD-004.html
html: https://openvapt.com/checks/HOST-PWD-004.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-PWD-004 No Account Lockout After Failed Logins

Checks that PAM temporarily locks accounts after repeated failed logins.

- Domain: Server
- Severity: Medium
- Control category: Identity and Authentication
- Fix effort: medium
- CVSS v3.1 vector: `CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N`
- CIS Controls v8: 5.2
- NIST CSF 2.0: PR.AA-01
- CWE: CWE-307
- OWASP Top 10 2021: A07:2021
- NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5: AC-7
- Benchmark topic: Lockout for failed password attempts (topic only, no benchmark text)

## Why It Matters

Without lockout, local and PAM-backed remote logins can be guessed indefinitely. A temporary lock after a few failures slows attacks and makes them visible. This check covers whether lockout exists and its deny threshold; HOST-PAM-002 covers only how long the lock lasts (unlock_time), so one missing lockout is reported once, here.

## How It Detects

Reads the PAM authentication stacks (/etc/pam.d/common-auth, /etc/pam.d/system-auth, /etc/pam.d/password-auth) and requires pam_faillock in both the preauth and authfail positions (or pam_tally2) with deny set to 10 or fewer failures (pam_faillock defaults to 3; deny is read from the module line or /etc/security/faillock.conf).

## How to Fix

Enable pam_faillock (authselect enable-feature with-faillock on RHEL family; pam-auth-update or a faillock profile on Debian/Ubuntu) with settings such as deny=5 unlock_time=900 in /etc/security/faillock.conf. Keep a root session open and test a login in a second session before closing it: a wrong PAM line can lock every user out, including administrators. Do not lock root (no even_deny_root) unless console access is assured.

## How to Verify

```
grep -E 'pam_faillock|pam_tally2' /etc/pam.d/common-auth /etc/pam.d/system-auth
```

## Learn the Theory

- [P7 Identity, Passwords and Privilege](https://openvapt.com/academy/p7.md)
- [P15 Access Control: Accounts, Sudo and Logins](https://openvapt.com/academy/p15.md)

## References

- [pam_faillock(8), Linux-PAM](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/pam_faillock.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/passwords.go

Run it: `openvapt scan --only HOST-PWD-004`. Read it offline: `openvapt explain HOST-PWD-004`.

---

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