Title

The NSX vCenter must prohibit password reuse for a minimum of five generations. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

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 network device 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.

Check Content

From the vSphere Web Client, go to Administration >> Single Sign-On >> Configuration >> Policies >> Password Policy. View the value of the "Restrict reuse" setting. If the "Restrict reuse" policy is not set to "5" or more, this is a finding.

Fix Text

From the vSphere Web Client, go to Administration >> Single Sign-On >> Configuration >> Policies >> Password Policy. Click "Edit" and enter "5" into the "Restrict reuse" setting. Click "OK".

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-83781r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-69177

Group Title: SRG-APP-000165-NDM-000253

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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