The Photon operating system must be configured to use the pam_pwhistory.so module.
Overview
| Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
| V-258902 | PHTN-40-000243 | SV-258902r933767_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 end result is a password that is not changed as per policy requirements. | ||||
| STIG | Date | |||
| VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2023-10-29 | |||
Details
Check Text (C-258902r933767_chk)
At the command line, run the following command to verify the pam_pwhistory.so module is used:
# grep '^password' /etc/pam.d/system-password
Example result:
password requisite pam_pwquality.so dcredit=-1 ucredit=-1 lcredit=-1 ocredit=-1 minlen=15 difok=8 enforce_for_root dictcheck=1
password required pam_pwhistory.so remember=5 retry=3 enforce_for_root use_authtok
password required pam_unix.so sha512 use_authtok shadow try_first_pass
If the "pam_pwhistory.so" module is not present, this is a finding.
If "use_authtok" is not present for the "pam_pwhistory.so" module, this is a finding.
If "conf" or "file" are present for the "pam_pwhistory.so" module, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-62551r933766_fix)
Navigate to and open:
/etc/pam.d/system-password
Add or update the pam_pwhistory.so module line as follows:
password required pam_pwhistory.so remember=5 retry=3 enforce_for_root use_authtok
Note: The line must be configured after pam_pwquality.so.
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.