RHEL 9 must prevent the use of dictionary words for passwords.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-258110	RHEL-09-611105	SV-258110r991587_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. If RHEL 9 allows the user to select passwords based on dictionary words, this increases the chances of password compromise by increasing the opportunity for successful guesses, and brute-force attacks.

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. If RHEL 9 allows the user to select passwords based on dictionary words, this increases the chances of password compromise by increasing the opportunity for successful guesses, and brute-force attacks.

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2024-06-04

Details

Check Text ( C-61851r926315_chk )
Verify RHEL 9 prevents the use of dictionary words for passwords with the following command: $ sudo grep dictcheck /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf:dictcheck=1 If "dictcheck" does not have a value other than "0", or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-61775r926316_fix)
Configure RHEL 9 to prevent the use of dictionary words for passwords. Add or update the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file or a configuration file in the /etc/pwquality.conf.d/ directory to contain the "dictcheck" parameter: dictcheck=1