accounts-policy

name	accounts_policy
description	Maintains the ansible/roles/accounts_policy Ansible role that deploys local account, login, PAM, and password-quality configuration (login.defs, pwquality.conf, faillock.conf, limits.conf, authselect profile) on RHEL-family systems as part of the Linux SOE. Use when checking or changing local account/authentication policy.

accounts_policy

Maintains ansible/roles/accounts_policy/. See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the shared conventions (role layout, --check --diff, safety rules).

ansible/roles/accounts_policy/README.md documents this role's full configuration surface (every defaults/main.yml variable, with its original inline comments, rendered as a single reference). Read it before proposing or explaining how to configure this role — it reflects the role's actual current defaults even if a variable summary elsewhere in this file has drifted out of sync with the role.

What the role actually does

This role does not assert individual policy values (e.g. it never checks "is PASS_MAX_DAYS 90?"). It deploys whole config files from role-provided templates/files, each independently optional — any variable left unset in defaults/main.yml means that file is left untouched:

• useradd_defaults_file → /etc/default/useradd
• login_defs_config_file → /etc/login.defs
• login_access_config_file → /etc/security/access.conf
• faillock_config_file → /etc/security/faillock.conf
• pwhistory_config_file → /etc/security/pwhistory.conf
• pwquality_config_file → /etc/security/pwquality.conf
• limits_config_file → /etc/security/limits.conf
• user_resource_limits (list) → /etc/security/limits.d/95-ansible.conf
• system_auth_profile (+ system_auth_profile_parameters) → installs authselect, optionally copies a custom/* profile to /etc/authselect/custom, and runs authselect select -f <profile> <parameters> if the currently-selected profile doesn't match
• system_auth_pam_d_su_file → /etc/pam.d/su

Each variable's docstring in defaults/main.yml lists the role-provided template alternatives (e.g. login_defs_config_file can be login.defs_cis_rhel89.j2, login.defs_rhel_rhel8.j2, etc. — pick per RHEL major version and compliance target). Nothing is configured out of the box: every one of these is unset by default.

What to do

This role is off by default in ansible/configure_rhel.yml — every role there (active or not) is gated by a single configure_rhel_domains list variable (when: "'<name>' in configure_rhel_domains"), and accounts_policy isn't in the default value of that list. Nothing needs editing in the playbook itself to turn it on: pass the full desired domain list via -e, e.g. -e '{"configure_rhel_domains": [...the default 20..., "accounts_policy"]}' (see .claude/skills/configure_rhel/SKILL.md for the current default list to extend, and why it has to be the full list, not just the addition — -e replaces the variable's value, it doesn't merge into it). --tags accounts_policy alone is not enough — the domains list and --tags/--skip-tags are separate, ANDed gates, both verified independently: a role only runs if it's in configure_rhel_domains and matches the requested tags. Some roles (this one — check its defaults/main.yml and task file) also have their own internal enable flag or required variable on top of that, which still needs setting the same as before. Flag all of this to the user before assuming the commands below will do anything.

Audit: ansible-playbook ansible/configure_rhel.yml --tags accounts_policy --check --diff. Note: the authselect current/authselect check steps are command tasks — they run under --check (marked check_mode: false) so drift there is still visible, but the authselect select task itself is a normal command and is skipped under --check, so a check run won't show its own diff.

Remediate: same command without --check, only after explicit user approval and after confirming which template/profile variables are actually set — an unset variable is a no-op, not a "use defaults" signal.

Propose a change to the role itself: never commit directly. On a branch named soe/accounts_policy/<short-desc>, edit the role, validate locally (--syntax-check, ansible-lint roles/accounts_policy/, --check --diff), push, and open a PR titled [accounts_policy] <what changed> with the --check --diff output in the body — then stop for human review. See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md's "Contribution workflow".

Notes

• This role has no built-in drift detection for password aging, empty passwords, duplicate UIDs, or NOPASSWD:ALL sudoers entries — none of that is checked or reported. If that kind of auditing is needed, it has to be added to the role first (propose via the branch/PR workflow), not assumed to already happen.
• system_auth_profile_parameters is a raw string appended to authselect select, e.g. with-mkhomedir with-pamaccess — get this right, a typo'd parameter is silently accepted by authselect in some cases.
• Sudoers edits made manually (not by this role — this role doesn't touch sudoers at all) should always go through visudo -c.