When passwords are changed or new passwords are established, the new password must contain at least one lower-case character.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-71905	RHEL-07-010130	SV-86529r3_rule		Medium

Description
Use of a complex password helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password complexity is one factor of several that determines how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.

Description

Use of a complex password helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password complexity is one factor of several that determines how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2017-07-08

Details

Check Text ( C-72137r5_chk )
Note: The value to require a number of lower-case characters to be set is expressed as a negative number in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf". Check the value for "lcredit" in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" with the following command: # grep lcredit /etc/security/pwquality.conf lcredit = -1 If the value of "lcredit" is not set to a negative value, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-78257r5_fix)
Configure the operating system to require at least one lower-case character when passwords are changed or new passwords are established. Add the following line to /etc/security/pwquality.conf (or modify the line to have the required value): lcredit = -1