The Photon operating system must prohibit password reuse for a minimum of five generations.
Overview
| Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
| V-256506 | PHTN-30-000029 | SV-256506r982201_rule | CCI-000200 | medium |
| Description | ||||
| Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. If the information system or application allows the user to consecutively reuse their password when that password has exceeded its defined lifetime, the result is a password that is not changed per policy requirements. | ||||
| STIG | Date | |||
| VMware vSphere 7.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2024-12-16 | |||
Details
Check Text (C-256506r982201_chk)
At the command line, run the following command:
# grep pam_pwhistory /etc/pam.d/system-password|grep --color=always "remember=."
Expected result:
password requisite pam_pwhistory.so enforce_for_root use_authtok remember=5 retry=3
If the output does not include the "remember=5" setting as shown in the expected result, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-60124r887191_fix)
Navigate to and open:
/etc/pam.d/system-password
Add the following line after the "password requisite pam_cracklib.so" statement:
password requisite pam_pwhistory.so enforce_for_root use_authtok remember=5 retry=3
Note: On vCenter appliances, the equivalent file must be edited under "/etc/applmgmt/appliance", if one exists, for the changes to persist after a reboot.