1.313 RHEL-09-611010

Information

RHEL 9 must ensure the password complexity module in the system-auth file is configured for three retries or less.

GROUP ID: V-258091
RULE ID: SV-258091r1045185

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.

RHEL 9 uses "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. This is set in both:/etc/pam.d/password-auth/etc/pam.d/system-auth

By 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 RHEL 9 to limit the "pwquality" retry option to "3".

Add or update the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file or a file in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/" directory to contain the "retry" parameter:

retry = 3

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-000192, CCI|CCI-004066, Rule-ID|SV-258091r1045185_rule, STIG-ID|RHEL-09-611010, Vuln-ID|V-258091

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: fff934fbeca1188f421d026aa1fb520e692ca3b6ffb4b97fc991eb117ae616d4