Detections
Analytics

1.168 OL08-00-020102

Information

OL 8 systems below version 8.4 must ensure the password complexity module in the system-auth file is configured for three retries or less.

GROUP ID: V-252658RULE ID: SV-252658r991589

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. "pwquality" enforces complex password construction configuration and has the ability to limit brute-force attacks on the system.

OL 8 utilizes "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. This is set in both:/etc/pam.d/password-auth/etc/pam.d/system-authBy limiting the number of attempts to meet the pwquality module complexity requirements before returning with an error, the system will audit abnormal attempts at password changes.

Solution

Configure the operating system to limit the "pwquality" retry option to 3.

Add the following line to the "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" file (or modify the line to have the required value):

password requisite pam_pwquality.so retry=3

See Also

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

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6b., CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000366, Rule-ID|SV-252658r991589_rule, STIG-ID|OL08-00-020102, Vuln-ID|V-252658

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: cf65a444775336d15862cc960303c4a92c5085a0992ae90619d49311582e0a6a