7.1.2 Set Password Change Minimum Number of Days - 7+

Information

The PASS_MIN_DAYS parameter in /etc/login.defs allows an administrator to prevent users from changing their password until a minimum number of days have passed since the last time the user changed their password. It is recommended that PASS_MIN_DAYS parameter be set to 7 or more days.

Rationale:

By restricting the frequency of password changes, an administrator can prevent users from repeatedly changing their password in an attempt to circumvent password reuse controls.

Solution

Set the PASS_MIN_DAYS parameter to 7 in /etc/login.defs:

PASS_MIN_DAYS 7

Modify active user parameters to match:

# chage --mindays 7 <user>

Default Value:

OS Default: No

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/3096

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1), CSCv7|4.4

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 9bda3f8ddaa40df72c09e59632504c43f4a33a7e5ffcfa90e7c7b4ec8279e91e