The Ubuntu operating system must prohibit password reuse for a minimum of five generations.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| low | V-238234 | SRG-OS-000077-GPOS-00045 | UBTU-20-010070 | SV-238234r1015152_rule | 2025-03-03 | 2 |
| 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. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000077-GPOS-00045, SRG-OS-000073-GPOS-00041 |
| ℹ️ Check |
|---|
| Verify the Ubuntu operating system prevents passwords from being reused for a minimum of five generations by running the following command: $ grep -i remember /etc/pam.d/common-password password [success=1 default=ignore] pam_unix.so obscure sha512 shadow remember=5 rounds=5000 If the "remember" parameter value is not greater than or equal to "5", is commented out, or is not set at all, this is a finding. |
| ✔️ Fix |
|---|
| Configure the Ubuntu operating system to prevent passwords from being reused for a minimum of five generations. Add or modify the "remember" parameter value to the following line in "/etc/pam.d/common-password" file: password [success=1 default=ignore] pam_unix.so obscure sha512 shadow remember=5 rounds=5000 |