Nutanix AOS must require the change of at least 50 percent of the total number of characters when passwords are changed.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-254213	NUTX-OS-001280	SV-254213r982198_rule		Medium

Description
If the operating system 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. If the password length is an odd number, then number of changed characters must be rounded up. For example, a password length of 15 characters must require the change of at least eight characters.

Description

If the operating system 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. If the password length is an odd number, then number of changed characters must be rounded up. For example, a password length of 15 characters must require the change of at least eight characters.

STIG	Date
Nutanix AOS 5.20.x OS Security Technical Implementation Guide	2024-06-18

Details

Check Text ( C-57698r846725_chk )
Verify Nutanix AOS is configured to require complex passwords. $ sudo grep difok /etc/security/pwquality.conf difok = 8 If the value of "difok" is set to less than "8", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-57649r846726_fix)
Configure the complex password requirements by running the following command: $ ncli cluster edit-cvm-security-params enable-high-strength-password=true