STIGUI
V-286490CAT II — Medium severitySV-286490r1274143_rule

WTM must require that when a password is changed, the characters are changed in at least eight of the positions within the password.

Rule version AWTM-NM-000035 · STIG v1 · 2026-09-14

Discussion

If the application allows the user to consecutively reuse extensive portions of passwords, this increases the chances of password compromise by increasing the window of opportunity for attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks.

The number of changed characters refers to the number of changes required with respect to the total number of positions in the current password. In other words, characters may be the same within the two passwords; however, the positions of the like characters must be different.

Multifactor authentication (MFA) is required for all administrative and user accounts on network devices, except for an account of last resort and (where applicable) a root account. Passwords should only be used when MFA using PKI is not available and for the account of last resort and root account.

Check

1. Log in to the SSH CLI. 2. Enter "configure terminal". 3. Enter "show running-config | include strong".

If "strong-security" is not enabled, this is a finding.

Fix

1. Log in to the SSH CLI. 2. Enter "configure terminal". 3. Enter "strong-security enabled". 4. Enter commit and then press "Enter".

Identifiers

Group ID
V-286490
Group title
SRG-APP-000170-NDM-000329
Rule ID
SV-286490r1274143_rule
Check ID
C-91172r1273749_chk
Fix ID
F-91077r1274142_fix