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V-216090

CAT II (Medium)

Users must not reuse the last 5 passwords.

Rule ID

SV-216090r603268_rule

STIG

Solaris 11 x86 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V2R10

CCIs

V-47961

Discussion

Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting guessing and brute-force attacks. To meet password policy requirements, passwords need to be changed at specific policy-based intervals. If the operating system allows the user to consecutively reuse their password when the password has exceeded its defined lifetime, the end result is a password that is not changed, per policy requirements.

Check Content

Determine if the password history setting is configured properly.

# grep ^HISTORY /etc/default/passwd

If HISTORY is commented out or is not set to 5 or more, this is a finding.

Fix Text

The root role is required.

# pfedit /etc/default/passwd 

Locate the line containing:

HISTORY

Change the line to read:

HISTORY=5