Title

Manually managed application account passwords must be changed at least annually or when a system administrator with knowledge of the password leaves the organization. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Setting application account passwords to expire may cause applications to stop functioning. However, not changing them on a regular basis exposes them to attack. If managed service accounts are used, this alleviates the need to manually change application account passwords.

Check Content

Determine if manually managed application/service accounts exist. If none exist, this is NA. If passwords for manually managed application/service accounts are not changed at least annually or when an administrator with knowledge of the password leaves the organization, this is a finding. Identify manually managed application/service accounts. To determine the date a password was last changed: Domain controllers: Open "PowerShell". Enter "Get-AdUser -Identity [application account name] -Properties PasswordLastSet | FT Name, PasswordLastSet", where [application account name] is the name of the manually managed application/service account. If the "PasswordLastSet" date is more than one year old, this is a finding. Member servers and standalone or nondomain-joined systems: Open "Command Prompt". Enter 'Net User [application account name] | Find /i "Password Last Set"', where [application account name] is the name of the manually managed application/service account. If the "Password Last Set" date is more than one year old, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Change passwords for manually managed application/service accounts at least annually or when an administrator with knowledge of the password leaves the organization. It is recommended that system-managed service accounts be used whenever possible.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-224824r857226_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-224824

Group Title: SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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