Details

The hashes for all user account passwords should be stored in the file ‘/etc/shadow’ and never in ‘/etc/passwd’, which is readable by all users.

Solution

If any password hashes are stored in ‘/etc/passwd’ (in the second field, instead of an ‘x’), the cause of this misconfiguration should be investigated. The account should have its password reset and the hash should be properly stored, or the account should be deleted entirely.

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_Oracle_Linux_6_V1R18_STIG.zip

This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: Configuration Management.This control applies to the following type of system Unix.

References

• 800-53|CM-6b.
• CAT|II
• CCI|CCI-000366
• Group-ID|V-50741
• Rule-ID|SV-208808r603263_rule
• STIG-ID|OL6-00-000031
• STIG-Legacy|SV-64947
• STIG-Legacy|V-50741
• Vuln-ID|V-208808

Source

• Tenable.com/audits