Set Password Minimum Age

An XCCDF Rule

Description

To specify password minimum age for new accounts, edit the file /etc/login.defs and add or correct the following line:

PASS_MIN_DAYS

A value of 1 day is considered sufficient for many environments. The DoD requirement is 1. The profile requirement is .

Rationale

Enforcing a minimum password lifetime helps to prevent repeated password changes to defeat the password reuse or history enforcement requirement. If users are allowed to immediately and continually change their password, then the password could be repeatedly changed in a short period of time to defeat the organization's policy regarding password reuse.

Setting the minimum password age protects against users cycling back to a favorite password after satisfying the password reuse requirement.

ID: xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_accounts_minimum_age_login_defs
Severity: Medium
References: 1 12 15 16 5

5.6.2.1.1

DSS05.04 DSS05.05 DSS05.07 DSS05.10 DSS06.03 DSS06.10

3.5.8

CCI-000198

4.3.3.2.2 4.3.3.5.1 4.3.3.5.2 4.3.3.6.1 4.3.3.6.2 4.3.3.6.3 4.3.3.6.4 4.3.3.6.5 4.3.3.6.6 4.3.3.6.7 4.3.3.6.8 4.3.3.6.9 4.3.3.7.2 4.3.3.7.4

SR 1.1 SR 1.10 SR 1.2 SR 1.3 SR 1.4 SR 1.5 SR 1.7 SR 1.8 SR 1.9 SR 2.1

0418 1055 1402

A.18.1.4 A.7.1.1 A.9.2.1 A.9.2.2 A.9.2.3 A.9.2.4 A.9.2.6 A.9.3.1 A.9.4.2 A.9.4.3

CM-6(a) IA-5(1)(d) IA-5(f)

PR.AC-1 PR.AC-6 PR.AC-7

SRG-OS-000075-GPOS-00043

5.5.1.2

SV-204418r603261_rule
Updated: about 1 year ago

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - CJIS-5.6.2.1.1
  - DISA-STIG-RHEL-07-010230  - NIST-800-171-3.5.8
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(1)(d)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(f)
  - accounts_minimum_age_login_defs
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - restrict_strategy
- name: XCCDF Value var_accounts_minimum_age_login_defs # promote to variable
  set_fact:
    var_accounts_minimum_age_login_defs: !!str <xccdf-1.2:sub xmlns:xccdf-1.2="http://checklists.nist.gov/xccdf/1.2" idref="xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_value_var_accounts_minimum_age_login_defs" use="legacy"/>
  tags:
    - always

- name: Set Password Minimum Age
  lineinfile:
    create: true
    dest: /etc/login.defs
    regexp: ^#?PASS_MIN_DAYS
    line: PASS_MIN_DAYS {{ var_accounts_minimum_age_login_defs }}
  when: '"shadow-utils" in ansible_facts.packages'
  tags:
  - CJIS-5.6.2.1.1
  - DISA-STIG-RHEL-07-010230
  - NIST-800-171-3.5.8
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(1)(d)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(f)
  - accounts_minimum_age_login_defs
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - restrict_strategy

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if rpm --quiet -q shadow-utils; then

var_accounts_minimum_age_login_defs='<xccdf-1.2:sub xmlns:xccdf-1.2="http://checklists.nist.gov/xccdf/1.2" idref="xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_value_var_accounts_minimum_age_login_defs" use="legacy"/>'

# Strip any search characters in the key arg so that the key can be replaced without# adding any search characters to the config file.
stripped_key=$(sed 's/[\^=\$,;+]*//g' <<< "^PASS_MIN_DAYS")

# shellcheck disable=SC2059
printf -v formatted_output "%s %s" "$stripped_key" "$var_accounts_minimum_age_login_defs"

# If the key exists, change it. Otherwise, add it to the config_file.
# We search for the key string followed by a word boundary (matched by \>),
# so if we search for 'setting', 'setting2' won't match.
if LC_ALL=C grep -q -m 1 -i -e "^PASS_MIN_DAYS\\>" "/etc/login.defs"; then
    escaped_formatted_output=$(sed -e 's|/|\\/|g' <<< "$formatted_output")
    LC_ALL=C sed -i --follow-symlinks "s/^PASS_MIN_DAYS\\>.*/$escaped_formatted_output/gi" "/etc/login.defs"
else
    if [[ -s "/etc/login.defs" ]] && [[ -n "$(tail -c 1 -- "/etc/login.defs" || true)" ]]; then
        LC_ALL=C sed -i --follow-symlinks '$a'\\ "/etc/login.defs"
    fi
    cce=""
    printf '# Per %s: Set %s in %s\n' "${cce}" "${formatted_output}" "/etc/login.defs" >> "/etc/login.defs"
    printf '%s\n' "$formatted_output" >> "/etc/login.defs"
fi

else
    >&2 echo 'Remediation is not applicable, nothing was done'
fi

Set Password Minimum Age

Description

Rationale

Remediation - Ansible

Remediation - Shell Script