UBTU-16-010100 - The Ubuntu operating system must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one upper-case character be used.

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

Solution

Configure the Ubuntu operating system to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one upper-case character be used.

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

ucredit=-1

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_CAN_Ubuntu_16-04_LTS_V2R3_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1)(a), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000192, Rule-ID|SV-214949r610931_rule, STIG-ID|UBTU-16-010100, STIG-Legacy|SV-90129, STIG-Legacy|V-75449, Vuln-ID|V-214949

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: f86b8a9a63d2e7489891557e771844fecbc80640c387d483e8ad5e1323b8a6ed