← Back to IBM AIX 7.x Security Technical Implementation Guide

V-215232

CAT II (Medium)

AIX must require passwords to contain no more than three consecutive repeating characters.

Rule ID

SV-215232r991589_rule

STIG

IBM AIX 7.x Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V3R2

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

Passwords with excessive repeating characters may be more vulnerable to password-guessing attacks.

Check Content

Check system default for "maxrepeats" attribute:
# lssec -f /etc/security/user -s default -a maxrepeats
default maxrepeats=3

If the default "maxrepeats" is greater than "3", or its value is not set, or its value is set to "0", this is a finding.

Check the "maxrepeats" setting for all users using:
# lsuser -a maxrepeats ALL

The above command should yield the following output:
root maxrepeats=3
daemon maxrepeats=3
bin maxrepeats=3
sys maxrepeats=3

If the "maxrepeats" setting for any user is greater than "3", or its value is set to "0", this is a finding.

Fix Text

Use the "chsec" command to set "maxrepeats" to "3" for the default stanza:
# chsec -f /etc/security/user -s default -a maxrepeats=3 

Use the "chsec" command to set "maxrepeats" to "3" for all the users who have "maxrepeats" values that are greater than "3", or its value is set to "0":
# chuser maxrepeats=3 [user_name]