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

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-217893	RHEL-06-000057	SV-217893r505923_rule		Low

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

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2020-09-03

Details

Check Text ( C-19374r462376_chk )
To check how many uppercase characters are required in a password, run the following command: $ grep pam_cracklib /etc/pam.d/system-auth /etc/pam.d/password-auth Note: The "ucredit" parameter (as a negative number) will indicate how many uppercase characters are required. The DoD requires at least one uppercase character in a password. This would appear as "ucredit=-1". If “ucredit” is not found or not set to the required value, this is a finding.

Check Text ( C-19374r462376_chk )

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

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

Note: The "ucredit" parameter (as a negative number) will indicate how many uppercase characters are required. The DoD requires at least one uppercase character in a password. This would appear as "ucredit=-1".

If “ucredit” is not found or not set to the required value, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-19372r462377_fix)
The pam_cracklib module's "ucredit=" parameter controls requirements for usage of uppercase letters in a password. When set to a negative number, any password will be required to contain that many uppercase characters. When set to a positive number, pam_cracklib will grant +1 additional length credit for each uppercase character. Edit /etc/pam.d/system-auth and /etc/pam.d/password-auth adding "ucredit=-1" after pam_cracklib.so to require use of an uppercase character in passwords.

Fix Text (F-19372r462377_fix)

The pam_cracklib module's "ucredit=" parameter controls requirements for usage of uppercase letters in a password. When set to a negative number, any password will be required to contain that many uppercase characters. When set to a positive number, pam_cracklib will grant +1 additional length credit for each uppercase character.

Edit /etc/pam.d/system-auth and /etc/pam.d/password-auth adding "ucredit=-1" after pam_cracklib.so to require use of an uppercase character in passwords.