If multifactor authentication is not supported and passwords must be used, the Cisco ISR 4000 Series router must require that when a password is changed, the characters are changed in at least eight of the positions within the password.

From Cisco IOS XE Release 3 NDM Security Technical Implementation Guide

Part of SRG-APP-000170-NDM-000329

Associated with: CCI-000195

SV-88695r1_rule If multifactor authentication is not supported and passwords must be used, the Cisco ISR 4000 Series router must require that when a password is changed, the characters are changed in at least eight of the positions within the password.

Vulnerability 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.

Check content

Verify that the Cisco ISR 4000 Series router is configured to use complex passwords. The configuration should look similar to the example below: aaa common-criteria policy PASSWORD_POLICY min-length 15 numeric-count 1 upper-case 1 lower-case 1 special-case 1 char-changes 8 If the use of complex passwords is not configured, this is a finding.

Fix text

Use the following commands to configure password complexity: aaa common-criteria policy PASSWORD_POLICY min-length 15 numeric-count 1 upper-case 1 lower-case 1 special-case 1 char-changes 8

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