Ensure passwords are controlled by password attributes

HighLevel 1Automatedaix

Description

Ensure passwords are required to pass password attribute controls. If password restrictions are not enforced for some accounts, those accounts represent a much greater risk of being compromised by an attacker as they may have weaker passwords vulnerable to brute force attack or provide an indefinite window of opportunity ... Audit: automated read-only check derived from the CIS audit procedure; it prints "compliant" when the control is met.

How it is checked

Audit method: Shell command

shell

command -v grep >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 1; [ -r /etc/security/passwd ] || exit 1; out=$( { grep NOCHECK /etc/security/passwd ; } 2>/dev/null ); [ -z "$out" ] && echo compliant || printf '%s\n' "$out" | head -n 20

Expected output: compliant

How it is fixed

Fix method: Guidance or infrastructure patch

In the file /etc/security/passwd clear the NOCHECK attribute from all users: #!/usr/bin/ksh -e # Copyright AIXTools, 2022 /usr/bin/grep -p NOCHECK /etc/security/passwd | /usr/bin/egrep ":$" | sed -e 's/://' | while read USER; do /usr/bin/pwdadm -c $USER /usr/bin/pwdadm -f ADMCHG $USER done

Properties

Operating systems: Any
Tags: aixpassword-policy
Reference: CIS IBM AIX 7 Benchmark v1.2.0 - 5.2.4 Ensure passwords are controlled by password attributes

Check this host

Run this on a machine you are allowed to audit. The scan is read-only.

shell

tmaegis scan --target aix