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

Verify the macOS system is configured to enforce a minimum 15-character password length with the following command: /usr/sbin/system_profiler SPConfigurationProfileDataType | /usr/bin/grep "minLength" minLength = 15; If "minLength" is not set to "15", this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the macOS system to enforce a 15-character password length by installing the "Passcode Policy" configuration profile.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-257229r905320_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-257229

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.