1.183 OL08-00-020231

Information

OL 8 passwords for new users must have a minimum of 15 characters.

GROUP ID: V-248700
RULE ID: SV-248700r1015059

The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.

Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password length is one factor of several that helps to determine strength and how long it takes to crack a password. Use of more characters in a password helps to increase exponentially the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

The DOD minimum password requirement is 15 characters.

Solution

Configure operating system to enforce a minimum 15-character password length for new user accounts.

Add or modify the following line in the "/etc/login.defs" file:

PASS_MIN_LEN 15

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/23791

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000205, CCI|CCI-004066, Rule-ID|SV-248700r1015059_rule, STIG-ID|OL08-00-020231, Vuln-ID|V-248700

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 15172385bd2c87d7f734641e56b9457668c02c9a2877a0ed9ca88976c8bf11f0