Title

All passwords must contain at least one special character. (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 in determining 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. Special characters are those characters that are not alphanumeric. Examples include: ~ ! @ # $ % ^ *.

Check Content

Verify the Ubuntu operating system enforces password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used. Determine if the field "ocredit" is set in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file or "/etc/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf" files with the following command: # grep -i "ocredit" /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf ocredit=-1 If the "ocredit" parameter is not equal to "-1", or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the Ubuntu operating system to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used. Add or update the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file or a configuration file in the /etc/pwquality.conf.d/ directory to contain the "ocredit" parameter: ocredit=-1

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-214952r610931_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-214952

Group Title: SRG-OS-000266-GPOS-00101

Expert Comments

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