Users must not reuse the last 5 passwords.

From Solaris 11 SPARC Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000200

SV-60833r1_rule Users must not reuse the last 5 passwords.

Vulnerability discussion

Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting guessing and brute-force attacks. To meet password policy requirements, passwords need to be changed at specific policy-based intervals. If the operating system allows the user to consecutively reuse their password when the password has exceeded its defined lifetime, the end result is a password that is not changed, per policy requirements.

Check content

Determine if the password history setting is configured properly. # grep ^HISTORY /etc/default/passwd If HISTORY is commented out or is not set to 5 or more, this is a finding.

Fix text

The root role is required. # pfedit /etc/default/passwd Locate the line containing: HISTORY Change the line to read: HISTORY=5

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