Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
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V-258109 | RHEL-09-611100 | SV-258109r997095_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. 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 9 utilizes "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. Note that to require special characters without degrading the "minlen" value, the credit value must be expressed as a negative number in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf". |
STIG | Date |
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2024-06-04 |
Check Text ( C-61850r926312_chk ) |
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Verify that RHEL 9 enforces password complexity by requiring at least one special character with the following command: $ sudo grep ocredit /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf ocredit = -1 If the value of "ocredit" is a positive number or is commented out, this is a finding. |
Fix Text (F-61774r926313_fix) |
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Configure RHEL 9 to enforce password complexity by requiring at least one special character be used by setting the "ocredit" option. Add the following line to "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" (or modify the line to have the required value): ocredit = -1 |