O121-C2-013900 - The DBMS must support organizational requirements to enforce minimum password length.

Information

Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks.

To meet password policy requirements, passwords need to be changed at specific policy-based intervals.

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.

Weak passwords are a primary target for attack to gain unauthorized access to databases and other systems. Where username/password is used for identification and authentication to the database, requiring the use of strong passwords can help prevent simple and more sophisticated methods for guessing at passwords.

Note that user authentication and account management must be done via an enterprise-wide mechanism whenever possible. Examples of enterprise-level authentication/access mechanisms include, but are not limited to, Active Directory and LDAP. This requirement applies to cases where it is necessary to have accounts directly managed by Oracle.

NOTE: Nessus has provided the target output to assist in reviewing the benchmark to ensure target compliance.

Solution

If all user accounts are authenticated by the OS or an enterprise-level authentication/access mechanism, and not by Oracle, no fix to the DBMS is required.

If any user accounts are managed by Oracle, develop, test, and implement a password verification function that enforces DOD requirements.

Oracle supplies a sample function called ORA12C_STRONG_VERIFY_FUNCTION. This can be used as the starting point for a customized function. The script file is found in the following location on the server depending on OS:

Windows:
%ORACLE_HOME%\RDBMS\ADMIN\catpvf.sql

UNIX/Linux:
$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/catpvf.sql

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_Oracle_Database_12c_V3R1_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1)(a), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-004066, Rule-ID|SV-237726r998259_rule, STIG-ID|O121-C2-013900, STIG-Legacy|SV-76209, STIG-Legacy|V-61719, Vuln-ID|V-237726

Plugin: OracleDB

Control ID: 529043f048627fe37c03389ed6c8fb4061b10bc0fc7d419607d535e4e804eafe