RHEL 9 must automatically lock graphical user sessions after 10 minutes of inactivity.

Documentable No

Rule ID SV-258023r1155656_rule

CCI References

CCI-000057CCI-000060

Discussion

A session time-out lock is a temporary action taken when a user stops work and moves away from the immediate physical vicinity of the information system but does not logout because of the temporary nature of the absence. Rather than relying on the user to manually lock their operating system session prior to vacating the vicinity, the GNOME desktop can be configured to identify when a user's session has idled and take action to initiate a session lock. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000029-GPOS-00010, SRG-OS-000031-GPOS-00012

Check Procedure

Verify RHEL 9 initiates a session lock after a 10-minute period of inactivity for graphical user interfaces with the following command:

Note: This requirement assumes the use of the RHEL 9 default graphical user interface, the GNOME desktop environment. If the system does not have any graphical user interface installed, this requirement is Not Applicable.

$ sudo gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay

uint32 600

If "idle-delay" is set to "0" or a value greater than "600", this is a finding.

Fix Action

Configure RHEL 9 to initiate a screensaver after a 10-minute period of inactivity for graphical user interfaces.

Create a database to contain the systemwide screensaver settings (if it does not already exist) with the following command:

$ sudo touch /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-screensaver

Edit /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-screensaver and add or update the following lines:

[org/gnome/desktop/session]
# Set the lock time out to 600 seconds before the session is considered idle
idle-delay=uint32 600

Update the system databases:

$ sudo dconf update