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Bug 1778929 - Password remembering must be made by means of pam_pwhistory
Summary: Password remembering must be made by means of pam_pwhistory
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Classification: Red Hat
Component: scap-security-guide
Version: 8.1
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
high
low
Target Milestone: rc
: 8.0
Assignee: Vojtech Polasek
QA Contact: Milan Lysonek
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2019-12-02 20:17 UTC by Carlos Santos
Modified: 2021-11-10 00:55 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

Fixed In Version: scap-security-guide-0.1.57-1.el8
Doc Type: No Doc Update
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2021-11-09 18:43:58 UTC
Type: Bug
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Attachments (Terms of Use)


Links
System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Product Errata RHBA-2021:4265 0 None None None 2021-11-09 18:44:09 UTC

Description Carlos Santos 2019-12-02 20:17:37 UTC 
Description of problem:

The playbooks in /usr/share/scap-security-guide/ansible/*.yml configure
password remembering by means of the pam_unix.so option "remember". This
does not work and causes errors due to SELinux restrictions.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

scap-security-guide-0.1.46-1.el8.noarch

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Log in as root on the system (e.g. via SSH).

3. Create an "infra" user with unlimited sudo permissions:

    # useradd -m infra
    # printf 'infra\ninfra\n' | passwd infra
    # echo 'infra ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL' >> /etc/sudoers.d/infra

4. Log in via SSH as "infra" ans run "sudo su -" to ensure that we have a backup access as root

5. Configure pam_unix to remember the last 12 passwords in /etc/pam.d/system-auth

    password requisite pam_pwquality.so try_first_pass local_users_only retry=3 authtok_type=
    password sufficient pam_unix.so sha512 shadow try_first_pass use_authtok remember=12

6. Set a password for "root" and expire it:

    # printf 'redhat\nredhat\n' | passwd root
    # passwd --expire root

7. Try to log in as root on the console (e.g tty2).

Actual results:

 After failing to log in the following messages appear in /var/log/secure:

Nov 27 14:20:24 rhel-8-1 login[11407]: pam_unix(login:account): expired password for user root (root enforced)
Nov 27 14:20:52 rhel-8-1 login[11407]: pam_unix(login:chauthtok): can't open /etc/security/opasswd file to check old passwords
Nov 27 14:20:52 rhel-8-1 login[11407]: pam_unix(login:chauthtok): new password not acceptable
Nov 27 14:20:54 rhel-8-1 login[11407]: Authentication token manipulation error

Expected results:

The password should be changed and recorded.

Additional info:

    According to Bug 1039089#c7:

    The remember functionality of pam_unix is deprecated in upstream PAM.
    I'd prefer not developing it further. The SELinux policy in RHEL-6
    should not change the opasswd file to shadow_t. This should have been
    done only in Fedora/RHEL-7 where the replacement for remember
    functionality - that is the pam_pwhistory module has its own
    pwhistory_helper for accessing shadow_t files.

    The correct way to configure password remembering is documented in

    https://access.redhat.com/solutions/2808101
Comment 1 Watson Yuuma Sato 2020-01-07 12:16:23 UTC 
Hello Carlos, thank you for filing the bug.

Do I understand correctly that this can cause the user to be locked out of the machine?
Comment 3 Carlos Santos 2020-01-07 17:26:28 UTC 
(In reply to Watson Yuuma Sato from comment #1)
> Hello Carlos, thank you for filing the bug.
> 
> Do I understand correctly that this can cause the user to be locked out of
> the machine?

Yes, it can lead to a situation in which even root is unable to log in.
Comment 4 Watson Yuuma Sato 2020-08-11 13:43:48 UTC 
The rule describes both uses "pam_unix.so" and "pam_pwhistory.so", and OVAL check accepts either configuration.
But remediation (Ansible and Bash) always configure using "pam_unix.so".
As remember feature in pam_unix is deprecated, the rule should shift to check and remediate with pam_pwhistory.

We also need to check if rhel6 supports pam_pwhistory.so and "remember", if not, the remediation for rhel6 should still configure pam_unix.
Comment 7 Vojtech Polasek 2021-06-15 08:49:27 UTC 
I believe there were created new rules which solve this bug:
https://github.com/ComplianceAsCode/content/pull/7027
They just need to be selected with a certain profile.
Carlos, are you using some specific profile so that we can possibly put these rules in the right place?
Comment 8 Vojtech Polasek 2021-06-17 12:13:12 UTC 
Rules are actually added into RHEL8 STIG profile. Moving the BZ to POST as the PR mentioned in previous comment has been merged.
Comment 9 Vojtech Polasek 2021-08-10 12:45:05 UTC 
I am sorry, the previously mentioned PR is wrong. This is the right one:
https://github.com/ComplianceAsCode/content/pull/7055
Comment 20 errata-xmlrpc 2021-11-09 18:43:58 UTC 
Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory (scap-security-guide bug fix and enhancement update), and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2021:4265
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