STIGUI
V-253064CAT II — Medium severitySV-253064r1262386_rule

TOSS must store only encrypted representations of passwords.

Rule version TOSS-04-040090 · STIG v2 · 2026-08-20

Discussion

Passwords need to 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.

Unapproved mechanisms that are used for authentication to the cryptographic module are not verified and therefore cannot be relied upon to provide confidentiality or integrity, and DoW data may be compromised.

FIPS 140-2 is the current standard for validating that mechanisms used to access cryptographic modules utilize authentication that meets DoW requirements.

Check

Verify that the TOSS shadow password suite configuration is set to encrypt password with a FIPS 140-2-approved cryptographic hashing algorithm.

Check the hashing algorithm that is being used to hash passwords with the following command:

$ sudo grep -i crypt /etc/login.defs ENCRYPT_METHOD SHA512

If "ENCRYPT_METHOD" does not equal SHA512 or greater, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure TOSS to encrypt all stored passwords.

Edit/Modify the following line in the "/etc/login.defs" file and set "ENCRYPT_METHOD" to SHA512.

ENCRYPT_METHOD SHA512

Identifiers

Group ID
V-253064
Group title
SRG-OS-000073-GPOS-00041
Rule ID
SV-253064r1262386_rule
Check ID
C-56517r824862_chk
Fix ID
F-56467r824863_fix