Title

Amazon Linux 2023 must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one lowercase 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 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-000070-GPOS-00038, SRG-OS-000725-GPOS-00180

Check Content

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

Fix Text

Configure Amazon Linux 2023 to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one lowercase character be used by setting the "lcredit" 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 "lcredit" parameter: lcredit = -1 Remove any configurations that conflict with the above value.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-274134r1120390_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-274134

Group Title: SRG-OS-000070-GPOS-00038

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.