The FortiGate device must require that when a password is changed, the characters are changed in at least eight of the positions within the password.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-234221	FGFW-ND-000311	SV-234221r628777_rule		Medium

Description
If the application allows the user to consecutively reuse extensive portions of passwords, this increases the chances of password compromise by increasing the window of opportunity for attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. The number of changed characters refers to the number of changes required with respect to the total number of positions in the current password. In other words, characters may be the same within the two passwords; however, the positions of the like characters must be different. Multifactor authentication (MFA) is required for all administrative and user accounts on network devices, except for an account of last resort and (where applicable) a root account. Passwords should only be used when MFA using PKI is not available, and for the account of last resort and root account.

Description

If the application allows the user to consecutively reuse extensive portions of passwords, this increases the chances of password compromise by increasing the window of opportunity for attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. The number of changed characters refers to the number of changes required with respect to the total number of positions in the current password. In other words, characters may be the same within the two passwords; however, the positions of the like characters must be different. Multifactor authentication (MFA) is required for all administrative and user accounts on network devices, except for an account of last resort and (where applicable) a root account. Passwords should only be used when MFA using PKI is not available, and for the account of last resort and root account.

STIG	Date
Fortinet FortiGate Firewall NDM Security Technical Implementation Guide	2021-01-29

Details

Check Text ( C-37406r611850_chk )
Log in to the FortiGate GUI with Super-Admin privilege. 1. Open a CLI console, via SSH or available from the GUI. 2. Run the following command: # show full-configuration system password-policy \| grep -i change The output should be: # set change-4-characters enable If the change-4-characters parameter is set to disable, this is a finding. If the change-4-characters parameter is set to enable, this mitigates to a CAT III finding, as this is a mitigation to at least changing four characters when changing the account of last resort. This is a limitation of the device. It is not possible to mitigate to "Not A Finding".

Check Text ( C-37406r611850_chk )

Log in to the FortiGate GUI with Super-Admin privilege.

1. Open a CLI console, via SSH or available from the GUI.
2. Run the following command:
# show full-configuration system password-policy | grep -i change
The output should be:
# set change-4-characters enable

If the change-4-characters parameter is set to disable, this is a finding.

If the change-4-characters parameter is set to enable, this mitigates to a CAT III finding, as this is a mitigation to at least changing four characters when changing the account of last resort. This is a limitation of the device. It is not possible to mitigate to "Not A Finding".

Fix Text (F-37371r611851_fix)
Log in to the FortiGate GUI with Super-Admin privilege. 1. Open a CLI console, via SSH or available from the GUI. 2. Run the following command: # config system password-policy # set change-4-characters enable # end Note that this setting only mitigates the requirement to a CAT III finding, as this is a mitigation to change at least four characters when changing the account of last resort. This is a limitation of the device. It is not possible to mitigate to "Not A Finding".

Fix Text (F-37371r611851_fix)

Log in to the FortiGate GUI with Super-Admin privilege.

1. Open a CLI console, via SSH or available from the GUI.
2. Run the following command:
# config system password-policy
# set change-4-characters enable
# end

Note that this setting only mitigates the requirement to a CAT III finding, as this is a mitigation to change at least four characters when changing the account of last resort. This is a limitation of the device. It is not possible to mitigate to "Not A Finding".