topic Re: HPUX password security in Operating System - HP-UX

HPUX password security

Bill Holtgreive — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:09:00 GMT

Running hpux 11.31. I need to be able to require account passwords to be a length of 12 (SOX compliance). I would prefer to not turn on trusted system functionality as I am under the impression that this has been depreicated and will no longer be included in the next release of hpux. The security man pages indicated a max length of 8 (untrusted) and the previous posts on this forum would confirm this. Are there any other options? Does anyone know of a patch etc. that might be in the works for this?

Thanks

Re: HPUX password security

Steven E. Protter — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:27:04 GMT

Shalom,

As trusted system is not continued in the next version of HP-UX you are wise not to use trusted sytsem.

http://software.hp.com

Search for Shadow Passwords.

You can install shadow password which works just like Linux and extend password length as well, tough digits 9-12 inclusive may still be ignored.

SEP

Re: HPUX password security

Raj D. — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:40:04 GMT

Bill,

Check this out:
HP-UX System Administrator's Guide: Security Management :HP-UX 11i Version 3.

- Described in chapter 4: HP-UX Standard Mode Security Extensions. If using with 11.31 .

http://docs.hp.com/en/5992-6416/5992-6416.pdf

You can set using: /etc/default/security
MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH [ Defines the minimum password length. ]

hth,
Raj.

Re: HPUX password security

John Guster — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:40:13 GMT

check /etc/default/security file, you can setup the policies to meet your SOX requirement.

Re: HPUX password security

Bill Holtgreive — Fri, 07 May 2010 18:34:19 GMT

Ok. I think we have a solution.

I have found a product called "HP-UX LongPassword" that is available for free download on the HP software site. It is descibed as follows:
HP-UX LongPassword increases the maximum password length from 8 to 255 characters in Shadow Mode. HP-UX LongPassword 11i3 is available on HP-UX 11i v3 systems with shadowed passwords.

It does require shadow mode be installed and implemented.

Without this software, in non-trusted mode, from all research I have done, all passwords are limited to a max length of 8.

Thanks for everyones help.