The system must enforce compliance of the entire password during authentication.

From Oracle Linux 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000205

SV-63933r2_rule The system must enforce compliance of the entire password during authentication.

Vulnerability discussion

Some common password hashing schemes only process the first eight characters of a user's password, which reduces the effective strength of the password.

Check content

Verify no valid password hash in /etc/passwd or /etc/shadow begins with a character other than an underscore (_) or dollar sign ($). # cut -d ':' -f2 /etc/passwd # cut -d ':' -f2 /etc/shadow If any valid password hash is present that does not have an initial underscore (_) or dollar sign ($) character, this is a finding. Note: Locked accounts are indicated by a leading exclamation point (!). System accounts, other than "root", may have an asterisk (*) in the password field. On systems utilizing shadow passwords, the password field in /etc/passwd will be a single "x".

Fix text

Change the passwords for all accounts using non-compliant password hashes. (This requires GEN000590 is already met.)

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