5.4.4 Ensure password hashing algorithm is SHA-512 - password-auth

Information

The commands below change password encryption from md5 to sha512 (a much stronger hashing algorithm). All existing accounts will need to perform a password change to upgrade the stored hashes to the new algorithm. The SHA-512 algorithm provides much stronger hashing than MD5, thus providing additional protection to the system by increasing the level of effort for an attacker to successfully determine passwords. Note that these changes only apply to accounts configured on the local system.

Solution

Set password hashing algorithm to sha512.

Run the following script to dd or modify the pam_unix.so lines in the password-auth and system-auth files to include the sha512 option:

CP=$(authselect current | awk 'NR == 1 {print $3}' | grep custom/) for FN in system-auth password-auth; do [[ -z $(grep -E '^s*passwords+sufficients+pam_unix.sos+.*sha512s*.*$' $PTF) ]] && sed -ri 's/^s*(passwords+sufficients+pam_unix.sos+)(.*)$/12 sha512/' $PTF done authselect apply-changes

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/2521

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION, SYSTEM AND COMMUNICATIONS PROTECTION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1), 800-53|SC-13, CSCv7|16.4

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 1c0620000051b98dd73366ae89e261b7ac1bb0d1af0180c09514cdec21849a94