Splunk RHEL-07 STIG 040000 - setting hard maxlogins to 10 ok?

[diptij]

We had upgraded to Splunk 9.0.4 on a RHEL7.9 machine.

STIG RHEL-07-040000 states the following:

Operating system management includes the ability to control the number of users and user sessions that utilize an operating system. Limiting the number of allowed users and sessions per user is helpful in reducing the risks related to DoS attacks. This requirement addresses concurrent sessions for information system accounts and does not address concurrent sessions by single users via multiple system accounts. The maximum number of concurrent sessions should be defined based on mission needs and the operational environment for each system.

The fix is the following:

Configure the operating system to limit the number of concurrent sessions to "10" for all accounts and/or account types. Add the following line to the top of the /etc/security/limits.conf or in a ".conf" file defined in /etc/security/limits.d/ : * hard maxlogins 10

Will this any way impact Splunk functionality?  Is this ok to make this change and not impact Splunk?

[inventsekar]

Hi @diptij 

The Splunk got some requirements for "open files", filesystems, etc..

but no requirements for maxlogins. pls check the docs links below, thanks. 

the Software requirements for your reference:

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.1/Installation/Systemrequirements#Considerations_re...

the hardware requirements for your reference: 

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.1/Capacity/Referencehardware

[diptij]

Thank-you!

Does that mean if I set '* hard maxlogins 10', splunk will operate correctly?

[inventsekar · Accepted solution]

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@diptij wrote:

Thank-you!

Does that mean if I set '* hard maxlogins 10', splunk will operate correctly?

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Sure, Yes, Splunk will work just fine. Splunk will not complain anything about maxlogins. 

Upvotes are appreciated, if the query is solved, please accept it as solution, thanks.