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

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-71903	RHEL-07-010120	SV-86527r2_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.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2017-12-14

Details

Check Text ( C-72135r3_chk )
Note: The value to require a number of upper-case characters to be set is expressed as a negative number in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf". Check the value for "ucredit" in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" with the following command: # grep ucredit /etc/security/pwquality.conf ucredit = -1 If the value of "ucredit" is not set to a negative value, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-78255r1_fix)
Configure the operating system to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one upper-case character be used by setting the "ucredit" option. Add the following line to "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" (or modify the line to have the required value): ucredit = -1