STIGUI
V-282459CAT II — Medium severitySV-282459r1200357_rule

TOSS 5 shadow password suite must be configured to use a sufficient number of hashing rounds.

Rule version TOSS-05-000356 · STIG v1 · 2026-08-20

Discussion

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

Check

Verify TOSS 5 has a minimum number of hash rounds configured using the following command:

$ grep -i sha_crypt /etc/login.defs

If "SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS" or "SHA_CRYPT_MAX_ROUNDS" is less than "5000", this is a finding.

Fix

Configure TOSS 5 to encrypt all stored passwords with a strong cryptographic hash.

Edit/modify the following line in the "/etc/login.defs" file and set "SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS" to a value no lower than "5000":

SHA_CRYPT_MIN_ROUNDS 5000

Identifiers

Group ID
V-282459
Group title
SRG-OS-000073-GPOS-00041
Rule ID
SV-282459r1200357_rule
Check ID
C-87020r1200355_chk
Fix ID
F-86925r1200356_fix