In AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), a password policy is a set of rules that define the complexity requirements for IAM user passwords. One of the password policy requirements is to prevent password reuse. This means that IAM users cannot reuse their previous passwords when creating a new password. By enforcing a strong password policy that prevents password reuse, IAM users are required to create new, unique passwords each time they update their password. This helps to improve the overall security of AWS resources and data by reducing the likelihood of an attacker being able to guess or crack a password. Additionally, IAM users are prompted to change their passwords periodically, further improving the security of their accounts.
The following are the remediation steps to ensure that the IAM password policy prevents password reuse:
- Log in to the AWS Management Console as an IAM user with administrator privileges.
- Navigate to the IAM dashboard and select "Account settings."
- In the "Account settings" page, locate the "Password policy" section and click the "Edit" button.
- In the "Edit password policy" dialog box, ensure that the "Prevent password reuse" option is selected.
- Optionally, you can also configure other password policy settings such as requiring the use of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
- Click the "Save changes" button to save the updated password policy.
- Test the new password policy by creating a new IAM user and setting a password.
- Change the password for the IAM user to a new password.
- Attempt to change the password for the IAM user to the previous password.
- Verify that the password change is rejected, and the user is prompted to create a new, unique password.
By following these steps, you can ensure that the IAM password policy prevents password reuse, helping to improve the security of AWS resources and data. Additionally, you can configure other password policy settings to further enhance the security of IAM user passwords.
Note: Remediation steps provided by Lightlytics are meant to be suggestions and guidelines only. It is crucial to thoroughly verify and test any remediation steps before applying them to production environments. Each organization's infrastructure and security needs may differ, and blindly applying suggested remediation steps without proper testing could potentially cause unforeseen issues or vulnerabilities. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you validate and customize any remediation steps to meet your organization's specific requirements and ensure that they align with your security policies and best practices.
