Title

NixOS must enforce a minimum 15-character password length. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password length is one factor of several that helps to determine strength and how long it takes to crack a password. Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

Check Content

Verify NixOS enforces a minimum 15-character password length with the following command: $ grep minlen /etc/security/pwquality.conf minlen=15 If the value of "minlen" is set to less than "15", or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure NixOS to enforce password complexity. Add the following Nix code to the NixOS Configuration, usually located in /etc/nixos/configuration.nix or /etc/nixos/flake.nix: environment.etc."/security/pwquality.conf".text = '' minlen=15 ''; Rebuild and switch to the new NixOS configuration: $ sudo nixos-rebuild switch

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-268134r1131073_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-268134

Group Title: SRG-OS-000078-GPOS-00046

Expert Comments

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