Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
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V-258091 | RHEL-09-611010 | SV-258091r997083_rule | Medium |
Description |
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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. "pwquality" enforces complex password construction configuration and has the ability to limit brute-force attacks on the system. RHEL 9 uses "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. This is set in both: /etc/pam.d/password-auth /etc/pam.d/system-auth By limiting the number of attempts to meet the pwquality module complexity requirements before returning with an error, the system will audit abnormal attempts at password changes. |
STIG | Date |
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2024-06-04 |
Check Text ( C-61832r926258_chk ) |
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Verify RHEL 9 is configured to limit the "pwquality" retry option to "3". Check for the use of the "pwquality" retry option in the system-auth file with the following command: $ cat /etc/pam.d/system-auth | grep pam_pwquality password required pam_pwquality.so retry=3 If the value of "retry" is set to "0" or greater than "3", or is missing, this is a finding. |
Fix Text (F-61756r926259_fix) |
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Configure RHEL 9 to limit the "pwquality" retry option to "3". Add the following line to the "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" file (or modify the line to have the required value): password required pam_pwquality.so retry=3 |