Title

SLEM 5 must employ user passwords with a minimum lifetime of 24 hours (one day). (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Enforcing a minimum password lifetime helps prevent repeated password changes to defeat the password reuse or history enforcement requirement. If users are allowed to immediately and continually change their password, the password could be repeatedly changed in a short period of time to defeat the organization's policy regarding password reuse.

Check Content

Verify SLEM 5 enforces a minimum time period between password changes for each user account of one day or greater with the following command: > sudo awk -F: '$4 < 1 {print $1 ":" $4}' /etc/shadow smithj:1 If any results are returned that are not associated with a system account, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure SLEM 5 to enforce 24 hours/one day or greater as the minimum password age for user accounts. Change the minimum time period between password changes for each <username> account to "1" day with the command, replacing <username> with the user account that must be changed: > sudo passwd -n 1 <username>

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-261388r996591_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-261388

Group Title: SRG-OS-000075-GPOS-00043

Expert Comments

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