AIX must enforce a minimum 15-character password length.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-215226	AIX7-00-001129	SV-215226r508663_rule		High

Description
The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised. 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. Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

Description

The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised. 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. Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

STIG	Date
IBM AIX 7.x Security Technical Implementation Guide	2020-09-11

Details

Check Text ( C-16424r294129_chk )
From the command prompt, run the following command to check the system default "minlen" attribute value: # lssec -f /etc/security/user -s default -a minlen default minlen=15 If the default "minlen" value is not set, or its value is less than "15", this is a finding. From the command prompt, run the following command to check "minlen" attribute value for all accounts: # lsuser -a minlen ALL root minlen=15 user1 minlen=20 user2 minlen=15 user3 minlen=15 If any users have "minlen" value less than "15", this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-16424r294129_chk )

From the command prompt, run the following command to check the system default "minlen" attribute value:
# lssec -f /etc/security/user -s default -a minlen
default minlen=15

If the default "minlen" value is not set, or its value is less than "15", this is a finding.

From the command prompt, run the following command to check "minlen" attribute value for all accounts:
# lsuser -a minlen ALL
root minlen=15
user1 minlen=20
user2 minlen=15
user3 minlen=15

If any users have "minlen" value less than "15", this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-16422r294130_fix)
From the command prompt, run the following command to set "minlen=15" for the default stanza in "/etc/security/user": # chsec -f /etc/security/user -s default -a minlen=15 For each user who has "minlen" value less than "15", set its "minlen" to "15" by running the following command from command prompt: # chsec -f /etc/security/user -s [user_name] -a minlen=15