The Oracle Linux operating system must be configured so that passwords are prohibited from reuse for a minimum of five generations.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-221685	OL07-00-010270	SV-221685r917842_rule		Medium

Description
Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. If the information system or application allows the user to reuse their password consecutively when that password has exceeded its defined lifetime, the end result is a password that is not changed per policy requirements.

STIG	Date
Oracle Linux 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-12-01

Details

Check Text ( C-23400r880673_chk )
Verify the operating system prohibits password reuse for a minimum of five generations. Check for the value of the "remember" argument in "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" and "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" with the following command: # grep -i remember /etc/pam.d/system-auth /etc/pam.d/password-auth password requisite pam_pwhistory.so use_authtok remember=5 retry=3 If the line containing the "pam_pwhistory.so" line does not have the "remember" module argument set, is commented out, or the value of the "remember" module argument is set to less than "5", this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-23400r880673_chk )

Verify the operating system prohibits password reuse for a minimum of five generations.

Check for the value of the "remember" argument in "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" and "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" with the following command:

# grep -i remember /etc/pam.d/system-auth /etc/pam.d/password-auth
password requisite pam_pwhistory.so use_authtok remember=5 retry=3

If the line containing the "pam_pwhistory.so" line does not have the "remember" module argument set, is commented out, or the value of the "remember" module argument is set to less than "5", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-23389r917841_fix)
Configure the operating system to prohibit password reuse for a minimum of five generations. Add the following line in "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" (or modify the line to have the required value): password requisite pam_pwhistory.so remember=5 retry=3 Add the following line in "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" (or modify the line to have the required value): password requisite pam_pwhistory.so use_authtok remember=5 retry=3 Note: Per requirement OL07-00-010199, Oracle Linux 7 must be configured to not overwrite custom authentication configuration settings while using the authconfig utility; otherwise, manual changes to the listed files will be overwritten whenever the authconfig utility is used.

Fix Text (F-23389r917841_fix)

Configure the operating system to prohibit password reuse for a minimum of five generations.

Add the following line in "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" (or modify the line to have the required value):

password requisite pam_pwhistory.so remember=5 retry=3

Add the following line in "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" (or modify the line to have the required value):

password requisite pam_pwhistory.so use_authtok remember=5 retry=3

Note: Per requirement OL07-00-010199, Oracle Linux 7 must be configured to not overwrite custom authentication configuration settings while using the authconfig utility; otherwise, manual changes to the listed files will be overwritten whenever the authconfig utility is used.