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1.334 RHEL-09-611130

Information

RHEL 9 must require the change of at least four character classes when passwords are changed.

GROUP ID: V-258115
RULE ID: SV-258115r1045238

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 a password, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.

Solution

Configure RHEL 9 to require the change of at least four character classes when passwords are changed by setting the "minclass" 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 "minclass" parameter:

minclass = 4

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/22008

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5, 800-53|IA-5(1), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000195, CCI|CCI-004066, Rule-ID|SV-258115r1045238_rule, STIG-ID|RHEL-09-611130, Vuln-ID|V-258115

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: f4db2e2a21ac80a54c0abb0820e646487b3ddf3dc232a31bed4a2ea5dabc169d