The SUSE operating system must not allow passwords to be reused for a minimum of five (5) generations.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-77121	SLES-12-010310	SV-91817r4_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 consecutively reuse their password when that password has exceeded its defined lifetime, the end result is a password that is not changed as per policy requirements.

STIG	Date
SLES 12 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2020-06-30

Details

Check Text ( C-76731r3_chk )
Verify the SUSE operating system prohibits the reuse of a password for a minimum of five (5) generations. Check that the SUSE operating system prohibits the reuse of a password for a minimum of five (5) generations with the following command: # grep pam_pwhistory.so /etc/pam.d/common-password password requisite pam_pwhistory.so remember=5 use_authtok If the command does not return a result, or the returned line is commented out, has a second column value different from "requisite", does not contain "remember" value, the value is less than "5", or is missing the "use_authtok" keyword, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-76731r3_chk )

Verify the SUSE operating system prohibits the reuse of a password for a minimum of five (5) generations.

Check that the SUSE operating system prohibits the reuse of a password for a minimum of five (5) generations with the following command:

# grep pam_pwhistory.so /etc/pam.d/common-password

password requisite pam_pwhistory.so remember=5 use_authtok

If the command does not return a result, or the returned line is commented out, has a second column value different from "requisite", does not contain "remember" value, the value is less than "5", or is missing the "use_authtok" keyword, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-83817r4_fix)
Configure the SUSE operating system password history to prohibit the reuse of a password for a minimum of five generations. Edit "/etc/pam.d/common-password" and edit the line containing "pam_pwhistory.so" to contain the option "remember=5 use_authtok" after the third column.