The firewall implementation must enforce password complexity by the number of lower case characters used.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
SRG-NET-000156-FW-000095	SRG-NET-000156-FW-000095	SRG-NET-000156-FW-000095_rule		Medium

Description
Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password complexity is one factor of several that determine how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password, the greater the number of possible character combinations to be tested before the password is compromised. Use of a complex password helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. A combinations requiring the use of upper case, lower case, numeric, and special characters enhances the complexity of the password string. This control applies to passwords configured or controlled by the firewall itself.

Description

Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password complexity is one factor of several that determine how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password, the greater the number of possible character combinations to be tested before the password is compromised. Use of a complex password helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. A combinations requiring the use of upper case, lower case, numeric, and special characters enhances the complexity of the password string. This control applies to passwords configured or controlled by the firewall itself.

STIG	Date
Firewall Security Requirements Guide	2012-12-10

Details

Check Text ( C-SRG-NET-000156-FW-000095_chk )
If authentication functionality is provided by the underlying platform's account management system or by a network authentication server rather than the firewall application itself, this is not a finding. Review the firewall configuration and settings to determine whether passwords contain the organization defined number of lower case characters. If the firewall implementation does not require the passwords have the organization defined number of lower case characters, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-SRG-NET-000156-FW-000095_chk )

If authentication functionality is provided by the underlying platform's account management system or by a network authentication server rather than the firewall application itself, this is not a finding.

Review the firewall configuration and settings to determine whether passwords contain the organization defined number of lower case characters.

If the firewall implementation does not require the passwords have the organization defined number of lower case characters, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-SRG-NET-000156-FW-000095_fix)
Configure the firewall implementation to enforce password complexity by the number of lower case characters used.