RHEL 9 must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used.
Overview
| Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
| V-258109 | RHEL-09-611100 | SV-258109r1045220_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. 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 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2024-12-04 |
Details
| Check Text (C-61850r926312_chk) |
| 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-61774r1045219_fix) |
| Configure RHEL 9 to enforce password complexity by requiring at least one special character be used by setting the "ocredit" option. Add or update the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file or a configuration file in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/" directory to contain the "ocredit" parameter: ocredit = -1 |