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The system must prohibit the reuse of passwords within five iterations.


Overview

Finding ID Version Rule ID IA Controls Severity
V-4084 GEN000800 SV-44884r1_rule IAIA-1 IAIA-2 Medium
Description
If a user, or root, used the same password continuously or was allowed to change it back shortly after being forced to change it to something else, it would provide a potential intruder with the opportunity to keep guessing at one user's password until it was guessed correctly.
STIG Date
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server v11 for System z 2013-04-26

Details

Check Text ( C-42338r1_chk )
# pam-config -q --pwhistory
If the result is not’ password: remember=5’ or higher, then this is a finding.

# ls /etc/security/opasswd
If /etc/security/opasswd does not exist, then this is a finding.

# grep password /etc/pam.d/common-password| grep pam_pwhistory.so | grep remember
If the "remember" option in /etc/pam.d/common-password is not 5 or greater, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-38316r1_fix)
Create the password history file.
# touch /etc/security/opasswd
# chown root:root /etc/security/opasswd
# chmod 0600 /etc/security/opasswd

Configure pam to use password history.
# pam-config -a --pwhistory
# pam-config -a --pwhistory-remember=5