Title

The Cisco ASA must be configured to require that when a password is changed, the characters are changed in at least eight of the positions within the password. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

If the application allows the user to consecutively reuse extensive portions of passwords, this increases the chances of password compromise by increasing the window of opportunity for attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. The number of changed characters refers to the number of changes required with respect to the total number of positions in the current password. In other words, characters may be the same within the two passwords; however, the positions of the like characters must be different. Multifactor authentication (MFA) is required for all administrative and user accounts on network devices, except for an account of last resort and (where applicable) a root account. Passwords should only be used when MFA using PKI is not available, and for the account of last resort and root account.

Check Content

Review the ASA configuration to verify it is compliant with this requirement as shown in the example below. password-policy minimum-changes 8 If the Cisco router is not configured to require that when a password is changed, the characters are changed in at least eight of the positions within the password, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the ASA to enforce password complexity by requiring that when a password is changed, the characters are changed in at least eight of the positions within the password as shown in the example below. ASA(config)# password-policy minimum-changes 8

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-239919r879607_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-239919

Group Title: SRG-APP-000170-NDM-000329

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.