The macOS system must enforce a minimum 15-character password length.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-214881	AOSX-13-000590	SV-214881r609363_rule		Medium

Description
The minimum password length must be set to 15 characters. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password length is one factor of several that helps to determine strength and how long it takes to crack a password. The use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

Description

The minimum password length must be set to 15 characters. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password length is one factor of several that helps to determine strength and how long it takes to crack a password. The use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

STIG	Date
Apple OS X 10.13 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2021-03-29

Details

Check Text ( C-16081r397215_chk )
To check the currently applied policies for passwords and accounts, use the following command: /usr/sbin/system_profiler SPConfigurationProfileDataType \| /usr/bin/grep minLength If the return is null or not “minLength = 15”, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-16079r397216_fix)
This setting is enforced using the "Passcode Policy" configuration profile. Note: Updates to password restrictions must be thoroughly evaluated in a test environment. Mistakes in configuration may block password change and local user creation operations, as well as lock out all local users, including administrators.