1.85 UBTU-24-400280

Information

The operating system must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one numeric character be used.

GROUP ID: V-270728
RULE ID: SV-270728r1066673

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.

Solution

Configure the operating system to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one numeric character be used.

Add or modify the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file:

dcredit = -1

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/22775

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000194, CCI|CCI-004066, CSCv7|4.4, Rule-ID|SV-270728r1066673_rule, STIG-ID|UBTU-24-400280, Vuln-ID|V-270728

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: b049e2e441cff43bb145ad4c283452a545797f33960bb932a60da84e2b3b7fa9