RHEL 10 must be configured so that password-auth uses a sufficient number of hashing rounds.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-281220 | SRG-OS-000073-GPOS-00041 | RHEL-10-600720 | SV-281220r1166612_rule | 2026-03-11 | 1 |
Description
Passwords must be protected at all times, and encryption is the standard method for protecting passwords. If passwords are not encrypted, they can be plainly read (i.e., clear text) and easily compromised. Passwords that are encrypted with a weak algorithm are no more protected than if they are kept in plain text.
Using more hashing rounds makes password cracking attacks more difficult.
Satisfies: SRG-OS-000073-GPOS-00041, SRG-OS-000120-GPOS-00061
ℹ️ Check
Verify RHEL 10 is configured to use a sufficient number of rounds for password hashing with the following command:
$ sudo grep rounds /etc/pam.d/password-auth
password sufficient pam_unix.so sha512 rounds=100000
If the setting is not configured or "rounds" is less than "100000", this a finding.
✔️ Fix
Configure RHEL 10 to use "100000" hashing rounds for hashing passwords.
Add or modify the following line in "/etc/pam.d/password-auth" and set "rounds" to "100000":
password sufficient pam_unix.so sha512 rounds=100000