1.322 RHEL-09-611065

Information

RHEL 9 must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one lowercase character be used.

GROUP ID: V-258102
RULE ID: SV-258102r1045207

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. Requiring a minimum number of lowercase characters makes password guessing attacks more difficult by ensuring a larger search space.

Solution

Configure RHEL 9 to enforce password complexity by requiring at least one lowercase character be used by setting the "lcredit" 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 "lcredit" parameter:

lcredit = -1

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-000193, CCI|CCI-004066, Rule-ID|SV-258102r1045207_rule, STIG-ID|RHEL-09-611065, Vuln-ID|V-258102

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 1edc8e528cc97a977b51670f2e9a8780b3b6719c4248ece5f6762c1da761e0c9