TOSS must require the change of at least eight characters when passwords are changed.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-253063	TOSS-04-040080	SV-253063r986593_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 8 characters. TOSS utilizes "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. The "difok" option sets the number of characters in a password that must not be present in the old password.

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 8 characters. TOSS utilizes "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. The "difok" option sets the number of characters in a password that must not be present in the old password.

STIG	Date
Tri-Lab Operating System Stack (TOSS) 4 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2024-05-30

Details

Check Text ( C-56516r824859_chk )
Verify the value of the "difok" option in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" with the following command: $ sudo grep difok /etc/security/pwquality.conf difok = 8 If the value of "difok" is set to less than "8" or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-56466r824860_fix)
Configure the operating system to require the change of at least eight of the total number of characters when passwords are changed by setting the "difok" option. Add the following line to "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" (or modify the line to have the required value): difok = 8