The system must require passwords to contain at least one lowercase alphabetic character.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-38571	RHEL-06-000059	SV-50372r1_rule		Low

Description
Requiring a minimum number of lowercase characters makes password guessing attacks more difficult by ensuring a larger search space.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2015-12-03

Details

Check Text ( C-46129r1_chk )
To check how many lowercase characters are required in a password, run the following command: $ grep pam_cracklib /etc/pam.d/system-auth The "lcredit" parameter (as a negative number) will indicate how many special characters are required. The DoD requires at least one lowercase character in a password. This would appear as "lcredit=-1". If lcredit is not found or not set to the required value, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-46129r1_chk )

To check how many lowercase characters are required in a password, run the following command:

$ grep pam_cracklib /etc/pam.d/system-auth

The "lcredit" parameter (as a negative number) will indicate how many special characters are required. The DoD requires at least one lowercase character in a password. This would appear as "lcredit=-1".
If lcredit is not found or not set to the required value, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-43519r1_fix)
The pam_cracklib module's "lcredit=" parameter controls requirements for usage of lowercase letters in a password. When set to a negative number, any password will be required to contain that many lowercase characters. When set to a positive number, pam_cracklib will grant +1 additional length credit for each lowercase character. Add "lcredit=-1" after pam_cracklib.so to require use of a lowercase character in passwords.

Fix Text (F-43519r1_fix)

The pam_cracklib module's "lcredit=" parameter controls requirements for usage of lowercase letters in a password. When set to a negative number, any password will be required to contain that many lowercase characters. When set to a positive number, pam_cracklib will grant +1 additional length credit for each lowercase character. Add "lcredit=-1" after pam_cracklib.so to require use of a lowercase character in passwords.