Application account passwords length and change requirement.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-14271	4.018	SV-25212r1_rule	IAIA-1	Medium

Description
Setting application accounts to expire may cause applications to stop functioning. The site will have a policy that application account passwords are changed at least annually or when a system adminstrator with knowledge of the password leaves the organization. Application/service account passwords will be at least 15 characters and follow complexity requirements for all passwords.

STIG	Date
Windows 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2012-07-02

Details

Check Text ( C-11762r1_chk )
The site should have a local policy to ensure that passwords for application/service accounts are at least 15 characters in length and meet complexity requirements for all passwords. Application/service account passwords manually generated and entered by a system administrator must be changed at least annually or whenever a system administrator that has knowledge of the password leaves the organization. Interview the system administrators on their policy for application/service accounts. If it does not meet the above requirements, this is a finding. Using the DUMPSEC utility: Select “Dump Users as Table” from the “Report” menu. Select the available fields in the following sequence, and click on the “Add” button for each entry: UserName SID PswdRequired PswdExpires PswdLastSetTime LastLogonTime AcctDisabled Groups If any application accounts listed in the Dumpsec user report have a date older than one year in the “PwsdLastSetTime” column, then this is a finding. Note: The following command can be used on Windows 2003/2008 Active Directory if DumpSec cannot be run: Open a Command Prompt. Enter “Dsquery user -limit 0 -o rdn -stalepwd 365”. This will return a list of User Accounts with passwords older the one year.

Check Text ( C-11762r1_chk )

The site should have a local policy to ensure that passwords for application/service accounts are at least 15 characters in length and meet complexity requirements for all passwords. Application/service account passwords manually generated and entered by a system administrator must be changed at least annually or whenever a system administrator that has knowledge of the password leaves the organization.

Interview the system administrators on their policy for application/service accounts. If it does not meet the above requirements, this is a finding.

Using the DUMPSEC utility:

Select “Dump Users as Table” from the “Report” menu.
Select the available fields in the following sequence, and click on the “Add” button for each entry:

UserName
SID
PswdRequired
PswdExpires
PswdLastSetTime
LastLogonTime
AcctDisabled
Groups

If any application accounts listed in the Dumpsec user report have a date older than one year in the “PwsdLastSetTime” column, then this is a finding.

Note: The following command can be used on Windows 2003/2008 Active Directory if DumpSec cannot be run:

Open a Command Prompt.
Enter “Dsquery user -limit 0 -o rdn -stalepwd 365”.
This will return a list of User Accounts with passwords older the one year.

Fix Text (F-13613r1_fix)
Create application/service account passwords that are at least 15 characters in length and meet complexity requirements. Change application/service account passwords that are manually generated and entered by a system administrator at least annually or whenever an administrator with knowledge of the password leaves the organization.