RHEL-10-600280 - RHEL 10 must require the maximum number of repeating characters of the same character class to be limited to four when passwords are changed.

Information

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 is, the greater the number of possible combinations that must be tested before the password is compromised.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000072-GPOS-00040, SRG-OS-000730-GPOS-00190

Solution

Configure RHEL 10 to require the change of the number of repeating characters of the same character class when passwords are changed by setting the "maxclassrepeat" 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 "maxclassrepeat" parameter:

maxclassrepeat = 4

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_RHEL_10_V1R1_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1)(a), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-004065, CCI|CCI-004066, Rule-ID|SV-281187r1195436_rule, STIG-ID|RHEL-10-600280, Vuln-ID|V-281187

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 3b2a3217c822f289037176d0a396a201e6496eeac744484298382d59dbe623c6