The system must prohibit the reuse of passwords within five iterations.

From Solaris 10 SPARC Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with IA controls: IAIA-2, IAIA-1

Associated with: CCI-000200

SV-27132r1_rule The system must prohibit the reuse of passwords within five iterations.

Vulnerability discussion

If a user, or root, used the same password continuously or was allowed to change it back shortly after being forced to change it to something else, it would provide a potential intruder with the opportunity to keep guessing at one user's password until it was guessed correctly.

Check content

Fix text

Edit /etc/default/passwd and set HISTORY to 5.

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