The system must require passwords contain a minimum of 14 characters.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-11947	GEN000580	SV-63903r1_rule	IAIA-1 IAIA-2	Medium

Description
The use of longer passwords reduces the ability of attackers to successfully obtain valid passwords using guessing or exhaustive search techniques by increasing the password search space.

STIG	Date
Oracle Linux 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2015-03-26

Details

Check Text ( C-52427r1_chk )
Check the system password length setting. Procedure: Check the password minlen option # grep pam_cracklib.so /etc/pam.d/system-auth Confirm the minlen option is set to at least 14 as in the example below: password required pam_cracklib.so minlen=14 There may be other options on the line. If no such line is found, or the minlen is less than 14 this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-54479r1_fix)
Edit "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" to include the line: password required pam_cracklib.so minlen=14 prior to the "password include system-auth-ac" line.