ALMA-09-037200 - AlmaLinux OS 9 PAM must be configured to use a sufficient number of password hashing rounds.

Information

Passwords must be protected at all times, and encryption is the standard method for protecting passwords. If passwords are not encrypted, they can be plainly read (i.e., clear text) and easily compromised.

Using more hashing rounds makes password cracking attacks more difficult.

Solution

Configure AlmaLinux OS 9 to use at least 100000 hashing rounds for hashing passwords.

Add or modify the following line in "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" and "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" and set "rounds" to "100000" or higher:

password sufficient pam_unix.so sha512 rounds=100000

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_CL_AlmaLinux_OS_9_V1R1_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1)(d), CAT|I, CCI|CCI-004062, Rule-ID|SV-269398r1050281_rule, STIG-ID|ALMA-09-037200, Vuln-ID|V-269398

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: f1a49f3f349f342f09571ae6cccb3e1694e79ed1e391862f17c321d95a124917