The Photon operating system must require that new passwords are at least four characters different from the old password.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-239096	PHTN-67-000024	SV-239096r816611_rule		Medium

Description
Use of a complex password helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks.

STIG	Date
VMware vSphere 6.7 Photon OS Security Technical Implementation Guide	2022-01-03

Details

Check Text ( C-42307r675094_chk )
At the command line, execute the following command: # grep pam_cracklib /etc/pam.d/system-password|grep --color=always "difok=." Expected result: password requisite pam_cracklib.so dcredit=-1 ucredit=-1 lcredit=-1 ocredit=-1 minlen=8 minclass=4 difok=4 retry=3 maxsequence=0 enforce_for_root If the output does not match the expected result, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-42266r816610_fix)
Open /etc/applmgmt/appliance/system-password with a text editor. Comment out any existing "pam_cracklib.so" line and add the following: password requisite pam_cracklib.so dcredit=-1 ucredit=-1 lcredit=-1 ocredit=-1 minlen=8 minclass=4 difok=4 retry=3 maxsequence=0 enforce_for_root Save and close.