The operating system must enforce a minimum 8-character password length.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-223516	ACF2-ES-000990	SV-223516r695451_rule		Medium

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 z/OS ACF2 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2022-01-05

Details

Check Text ( C-25189r695450_chk )
From an ACF command screen enter: SET CONTROL(GSO) LIST PSWD If "MINPSWD" is set to "8", this is not a finding.

Fix Text (F-25177r500682_fix)
Configure the Password option "MINPSWD" to "8".