Title

The Cisco ASA must be configured to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special 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 determine 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. Multifactor authentication (MFA) is required for all administrative and user accounts on network devices, except for an account of last resort and (where applicable) a root account. Passwords should only be used when MFA using PKI is not available, and for the account of last resort and root account.

Check Content

Review the ASA configuration to verify that it is compliant with this requirement as shown in the example below. password-policy minimum-special 1 If the Cisco ASA is not configured to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the Cisco ASA to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used as shown in the example below. ASA(config)# password-policy minimum-special 1

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-239918r879606_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-239918

Group Title: SRG-APP-000169-NDM-000257

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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