SV-204405r982195: The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that /etc/pam.d/passwd implements /etc/pam.d/system-auth when changing passwords. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 STIG SCAP Benchmark

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that /etc/pam.d/passwd implements /etc/pam.d/system-auth when changing passwords.

Description

Discussion Text

Pluggable authentication modules (PAM) allow for a modular approach to integrating authentication methods. PAM operates in a top-down processing model and if the modules are not listed in the correct order, an important security function could be bypassed if stack entries are not centralized.

How this relates to the STIG checklist: STIG vs SCAP benchmark.

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000192SV-95715V-81003

References

DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 2899

Checks

DISA STIG (Manual Reference)

Verify that /etc/pam.d/passwd is configured to use /etc/pam.d/system-auth when changing passwords:

# cat /etc/pam.d/passwd | grep -i substack | grep -i system-auth
password     substack     system-auth

If no results are returned, the line is commented out, this is a finding.

SCC Automation Reference

The reconstructed evaluation script behind this rule's OVAL check(s) — every module a compound check combines, with this rule's own concrete values and DISA's SCC tool's real per-module mechanism curated from static teardown of SCC releases.

#!/bin/bash
# Reconstructed from oval:mil.disa.stig.rhel7:def:95715
# The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that /etc/pam.d/passwd implements /etc/pam.d/system-auth when changing passwords.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# /etc/pam.d/system-auth is included in /etc/pam.d/passwd.
# textfilecontent54_object (textfilecontent54_test)
test_1() {
  grep -Pq '^[\s]*password[ \t]+substack[ \t]+system-auth\s*$' '/etc/pam.d/passwd' &>/dev/null
}

if test_1; then
  echo "PASS"
else
  echo "FAIL"
fi

Assessment Script Powered by AISandbox-executed

A standalone Shell script to assess this control automatically. Review before running it in your environment.

Syntax-checked and actually executed in an isolated sandbox (not the real system this checks) — confirmed to run without errors.

#!/bin/sh
# OVAL Definition: oval:mil.disa.stig.rhel7:def:95715


if [ ! -f "/etc/pam.d/passwd" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
grep -q "^[\\s]*password[ \\t]+substack[ \\t]+system-auth\\s*$" /etc/pam.d/passwd || { echo "FAIL"; exit 1; }
echo "PASS"; exit 0

Remediation

Configure PAM to utilize /etc/pam.d/system-auth when changing passwords.

Add the following line to "/etc/pam.d/passwd" (or modify the line to have the required value):

password     substack    system-auth