When passwords are changed or new passwords are assigned, the new password must contain at least one special character.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-71909	RHEL-07-010150	SV-86533r1_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-72141r1_chk )

Verify the operating system enforces password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used. Note: The value to require a number of special characters to be set is expressed as a negative number in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf". Check the value for "ocredit" in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" with the following command: # grep ocredit /etc/security/pwquality.conf ocredit=-1 If the value of "ocredit" is not set to a negative value, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-78261r1_fix)
Configure the operating system to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used by setting the "dcredit" option. Add the following line to "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" (or modify the line to have the required value): ocredit = -1