The Photon operating system must store only encrypted representations of passwords.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-239097	PHTN-67-000025	SV-239097r816613_rule		Medium

Description
Passwords must be protected at all times via strong, one-way encryption. If passwords are not encrypted, they can be plainly read (i.e., clear text) and easily compromised. If they are encrypted with a weak cipher, those passwords are much more vulnerable to offline brute forcing attacks.

STIG	Date
VMware vSphere 6.7 Photon OS Security Technical Implementation Guide	2022-09-27

Details

Check Text ( C-42308r675097_chk )
At the command line, execute the following command: # grep password /etc/pam.d/system-password|grep --color=always "sha512" If the output does not include "sha512", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-42267r816612_fix)
Open /etc/applmgmt/appliance/system-password with a text editor. Add the following argument (sha512) to the password line: password required pam_unix.so sha512 shadow try_first_pass Save and close.