RHEL 9 must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one uppercase character be used.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-258111	RHEL-09-611110	SV-258111r997096_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. Requiring a minimum number of uppercase characters makes password guessing attacks more difficult by ensuring a larger search space.

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. Requiring a minimum number of uppercase characters makes password guessing attacks more difficult by ensuring a larger search space.

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

Details

Check Text ( C-61852r926318_chk )
Verify that RHEL 9 enforces password complexity by requiring that at least one uppercase character. Check the value for "ucredit" with the following command: $ sudo grep ucredit /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf/*.conf ucredit = -1 If the value of "ucredit" is a positive number or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-61776r926319_fix)
Configure RHEL 9 to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one uppercase character be used by setting the "ucredit" option. Add the following line to /etc/security/pwquality.conf (or modify the line to have the required value): ucredit = -1