Title

Amazon Linux 2023 must enforce password complexity rules for the root account. (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 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. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000072-GPOS-00040, SRG-OS-000071-GPOS-00039, SRG-OS-000070-GPOS-00038, SRG-OS-000266-GPOS-00101, SRG-OS-000078-GPOS-00046, SRG-OS-000069-GPOS-00037

Check Content

Verify Amazon Linux 2023 enforces password complexity rules for the root account with the following command: $ sudo grep -rs enforce_for_root /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf:enforce_for_root If "enforce_for_root" is commented or missing, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure Amazon Linux 2023 to enforce password complexity on the root account. 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 "enforce_for_root" parameter: enforce_for_root

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-274139r1120405_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-274139

Group Title: SRG-OS-000072-GPOS-00040

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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