The SUSE operating system must require the change of at least eight (8) of the total number of characters when passwords are changed.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-217121	SLES-12-010190	SV-217121r603262_rule		Medium

Description
If the SUSE 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.

Description

If the SUSE 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.

STIG	Date
SLES 12 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-06-02

Details

Check Text ( C-18349r369519_chk )
Verify the SUSE operating system requires at least eight (8) characters be changed between the old and new passwords during a password change. Check that the operating system requires at least eight (8) characters be changed between the old and new passwords during a password change by running the following command: # grep pam_cracklib.so /etc/pam.d/common-password password requisite pam_cracklib.so difok=8 If the command does not return anything, the returned line is commented out, or has a second column value different from "requisite", or does not contain "difok", or the value is less than "8", this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-18349r369519_chk )

Verify the SUSE operating system requires at least eight (8) characters be changed between the old and new passwords during a password change.

Check that the operating system requires at least eight (8) characters be changed between the old and new passwords during a password change by running the following command:

# grep pam_cracklib.so /etc/pam.d/common-password
password requisite pam_cracklib.so difok=8

If the command does not return anything, the returned line is commented out, or has a second column value different from "requisite", or does not contain "difok", or the value is less than "8", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-18347r369520_fix)
Configure the SUSE operating system to require at least eight characters be changed between the old and new passwords during a password change with the following command: Edit "/etc/pam.d/common-password" and edit the line containing "pam_cracklib.so" to contain the option "difok=8" after the third column.