Detections
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RHEL-09-611010 - RHEL 9 must ensure the password complexity module in the system-auth file is configured for three retries or less.
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. "pwquality" enforces complex password construction configuration and has the ability to limit brute-force attacks on the system.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://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_RHEL_9_V2R9_STIG.zip
Item Details
Audit Name: DISA Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 STIG v2r9
Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION
References: 800-53|IA-5(1)(a), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000192, CCI|CCI-004066, Rule-ID|SV-258091r1208774_rule, STIG-ID|RHEL-09-611010, Vuln-ID|V-258091
Plugin: Unix
Control ID: 8ea6f27a7722c2a0619f554bc50ddc5d5bfdfc714195ba58afcd4970d3a651c8