GEN000800 M6 - The system must prohibit the reuse of passwords to 15 iterations - 'Local usingHistory = 15'

Information

If a user, or root, used the same password continuously or was allowed to change it back shortly after being forced to change it to something else, it would provide a potential intruder with the opportunity to keep guessing at the user's password until it was guessed correctly.

Solution

Open a terminal session and use the following command to set the value for usingHistory.

sudo pwpolicy -n -setglobalpolicy 'usingHistory=15'

NOTE- For non-managed system, use the following command.

pwpolicy -n /Local/Default -setglobalpolicy 'usingHistory=15'

See Also

http://iase.disa.mil/stigs/os/mac/u_mac_osx_10.6_v1r3_stig_20130426.zip

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000200, Rule-ID|SV-38632r1_rule, STIG-ID|GEN000800-M6, Vuln-ID|V-4084

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 0f50eb2647fba86424bae71b5a54ee77d28acbc5cf413241bdbb12188b28ef58