Title

The macOS system must enforce a minimum 15-character password length. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

The minimum password length must be set to 15 characters. 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. The use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

Check Content

To check the currently applied policies for passwords and accounts, use the following command: /usr/sbin/system_profiler SPConfigurationProfileDataType | /usr/bin/grep minLength If the return is null or not “minLength = 15”, this is a finding.

Fix Text

This setting is enforced using the "Passcode Policy" configuration profile.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-230834r599842_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-230834

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

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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