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

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-38658	RHEL-06-000274	SV-50459r3_rule		Medium

Description
Preventing reuse of previous passwords helps ensure that a compromised password is not reused by a user.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2016-07-22

Details

Check Text ( None )
None

Fix Text (F-43608r3_fix)
Do not allow users to reuse recent passwords. This can be accomplished by using the "remember" option for the "pam_pwhistory" PAM module. In the file "/etc/pam.d/system-auth", append "remember=5" to the line which refers to the "pam_pwhistory.so" module, as shown: password sufficient pam_pwhistory.so [existing_options] remember=5 The DoD requirement is five passwords.