5.2.6 Ensure Complex Password Must Contain Uppercase and Lowercase Characters Is Configured

Information

Complex passwords contain one character from each of the following classes: English uppercase letters, English lowercase letters, Westernized Arabic numerals, and non-alphanumeric characters.

Ensure that both uppercase and lowercase letters are part of the password policy on the computer.

Rationale:

The more complex a password, the more resistant it will be against persons seeking unauthorized access to a system.

Impact:

Password policy should be in effect to reduce the risk of exposed services being compromised easily through dictionary attacks or other social engineering attempts.

Solution

Terminal Method:
Run the following command to set passwords to require at upper and lower case letter:

$ /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/pwpolicy -n /Local/Default -setglobalpolicy 'requiresMixedCase=<value>=1>'

example:

$ /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/pwpolicy -n /Local/Default -setglobalpolicy 'requiresMixedCase=1'

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/4176

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1), CSCv7|4.4

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: bfbc858c33a3957c5f83210ffedd162f22862630192d7f3696ccc0d41f28bcb6