RHEL-07-010200 - The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that the PAM system service is configured to store only encrypted representations of passwords.

Information

Passwords need to 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. Passwords encrypted with a weak algorithm are no more protected than if they are kept in plain text.

Solution

Configure the operating system to store only SHA512 encrypted representations of passwords.

Add the following line in '/etc/pam.d/system-auth':
password sufficient pam_unix.so sha512 shadow try_first_pass use_authtok

Add the following line in '/etc/pam.d/password-auth':
password sufficient pam_unix.so sha512 shadow try_first_pass use_authtok

Note: Per requirement RHEL-07-010199, RHEL 7 must be configured to not overwrite custom authentication configuration settings while using the authconfig utility; otherwise, manual changes to the listed files will be overwritten whenever the authconfig utility is used.

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_RHEL_7_V3R15_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1)(c), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000196, Rule-ID|SV-204415r982199_rule, STIG-ID|RHEL-07-010200, STIG-Legacy|SV-86543, STIG-Legacy|V-71919, Vuln-ID|V-204415

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 96a1f30f74b155e8e8a08de9c6a03268e943a755fcaf3a341e7c1c2123cd0758