RHEL 8 must require the maximum number of repeating characters be limited to three when passwords are changed.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-230361	RHEL-08-020150	SV-230361r858779_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. RHEL 8 utilizes "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. The "maxrepeat" option sets the maximum number of allowed same consecutive characters in a new password.

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. RHEL 8 utilizes "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. The "maxrepeat" option sets the maximum number of allowed same consecutive characters in a new password.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-09-11

Details

Check Text ( C-33030r833320_chk )
Check for the value of the "maxrepeat" option with the following command: $ sudo grep -r maxrepeat /etc/security/pwquality.conf* /etc/security/pwquality.conf:maxrepeat = 3 If the value of "maxrepeat" is set to more than "3" or is commented out, this is a finding. If conflicting results are returned, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-33005r858778_fix)
Configure the operating system to require the change of the number of repeating consecutive characters when passwords are changed by setting the "maxrepeat" option. Add the following line to "/etc/security/pwquality.conf conf" (or modify the line to have the required value): maxrepeat = 3 Remove any configurations that conflict with the above value.