The Photon operating system must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one numeric character be used.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-258816	PHTN-40-000037	SV-258816r933509_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.

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.

STIG	Date
VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Appliance Photon OS 4.0 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-10-29

Details

Check Text ( C-62556r933507_chk )
At the command line, run the following command to verify at least one numeric character be used: # grep '^password.*pam_pwquality.so' /etc/pam.d/system-password Example result: password requisite pam_pwquality.so dcredit=-1 ucredit=-1 lcredit=-1 ocredit=-1 minlen=15 difok=8 enforce_for_root dictcheck=1 If the "dcredit" option is not < 0, is missing or commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-62465r933508_fix)
Navigate to and open: /etc/pam.d/system-password Configure the pam_pwquality.so line to have the "dcredit" option set to "-1" as follows: password requisite pam_pwquality.so dcredit=-1 ucredit=-1 lcredit=-1 ocredit=-1 minlen=15 difok=8 enforce_for_root dictcheck=1 Note: On vCenter appliances, the equivalent file must be edited under "/etc/applmgmt/appliance", if one exists, for the changes to persist after a reboot.

Fix Text (F-62465r933508_fix)

Navigate to and open:

/etc/pam.d/system-password

Configure the pam_pwquality.so line to have the "dcredit" option set to "-1" as follows:

password requisite pam_pwquality.so dcredit=-1 ucredit=-1 lcredit=-1 ocredit=-1 minlen=15 difok=8 enforce_for_root dictcheck=1

Note: On vCenter appliances, the equivalent file must be edited under "/etc/applmgmt/appliance", if one exists, for the changes to persist after a reboot.