Details

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.security.doc/GUID-F48903DA-8A66-47C7-9796-CD12339B2164.html

Solution

Perform the following-1. Login to the ESXi shell as a user with administrator privileges.
2. Open /etc./pam.d/passwd
3. Locate the following line-password requisite /lib/security/$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so retry=N
min=N0,N1,N2,N3,N44. Set N is less than or equal to 5
5. Set N0 to disabled
6. Set N1 to disabled
7. Set N2 to disabled
8. Set N3 to disabled
9. Set N4 to 14 or greaterThis above requires all passwords to be 14 or more characters long and comprised of at
least one character from four distinct character sets. Additionally, a maximum of 5 login
attempts are permitted.

Default Value-The prescribed state is the default state.

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/902

This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: Identification and Authentication.This control applies to the following type of system VMware.

References

• 800-53|IA-5(1)(a)

Source

• Tenable.com/audits