Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 • Release: 7 Benchmark Date: 05 Jan 2026
CAT II V-258071 RHEL-09-412050
RHEL 9 must enforce a delay of at least four seconds between logon prompts following a failed logon attempt.
Discussion
Increasing the time between a failed authentication attempt and reprompting to enter credentials helps to slow a single-threaded brute force attack.
Check Procedure
Verify RHEL 9 enforces a delay of at least four seconds between console logon prompts following a failed logon attempt with the following command: $ grep -i fail_delay /etc/login.defs FAIL_DELAY 4 If the value of "FAIL_DELAY" is not set to "4" or greater, or the line is commented out, this is a finding.
Fix Action
Configure the RHEL 9 to enforce a delay of at least four seconds between logon prompts following a failed console logon attempt. Modify the "/etc/login.defs" file to set the "FAIL_DELAY" parameter to 4 or greater: FAIL_DELAY 4