Title

Amazon Linux 2023 must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

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 in determining 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. Special characters are those characters that are not alphanumeric. Examples include: ~ ! @ # $ % ^ *. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000266-GPOS-00101, SRG-OS-000725-GPOS-00180

Check Content

Verify Amazon Linux 2023 enforces password complexity by requiring at least one special character with the following command: $ sudo grep -rs ocredit /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf: ocredit = -1 If the value of "ocredit" is a positive number or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure Amazon Linux 2023 to enforce password complexity by requiring at least one special character be used by setting the "ocredit" 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 "ocredit" parameter: ocredit = -1

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-274138r1120402_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-274138

Group Title: SRG-OS-000266-GPOS-00101

Expert Comments

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