ESXI-70-000032 - The ESXi host must prohibit the reuse of passwords within five iterations.

Information

If a user or root used the same password continuously or was allowed to change it back shortly after being forced to change it to something else, it would provide a potential intruder with the opportunity to keep guessing at one user's password until it was guessed correctly.

Solution

From the vSphere Client, go to Hosts and Clusters.

Select the ESXi Host >> Configure >> System >> Advanced System Settings.

Click 'Edit'. Select the 'Security.PasswordHistory' value and configure it to '5'.

or

From a PowerCLI command prompt while connected to the ESXi host, run the following command:

Get-VMHost | Get-AdvancedSetting -Name Security.PasswordHistory | Set-AdvancedSetting -Value 5

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_VMW_vSphere_7-0_Y23M07_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1)(e), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000200, Rule-ID|SV-256398r919019_rule, STIG-ID|ESXI-70-000032, Vuln-ID|V-256398

Plugin: VMware

Control ID: 9cd4e2599e0ce1f07a2d697380e2e5e7fe379a20445ce4d6ded4610a5dac4bdd