Fortinet FortiGate Firewall NDM STIG Version Comparison

There are 4 differences between versions v1 r3 (Oct. 26, 2022) (the "left" version) and v1 r5 (Jan. 5, 2026) (the "right" version).

Check FGFW-ND-000230 was changed between these two versions. Green, underlined text was added, red, struck-out text was removed.

The regular view of the left check and right check may be easier to read.

Title

The FortiGate device must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one lowercase character be used.

Check Content

Log in to the FortiGate GUI with Super-Admin privilege. 1. Click System. 2. Click Settings. 3. Navigate to Password Policy. 4. Verify Password scope is enabled for Admin and Character requirements is toggled to right. 5. Verify the Lowercase value is set to 1 or greater. If the Lowercase parameter is not set to 1 or greater, this is a finding. or Log in to the FortiGate GUI with Super-Admin privilege. 1. Open a CLI console, via SSH or available from the GUI. 2. Run the following command: # show full-configuration system password-policy | grep -i upper-case If lower-case If the min-lower-case-letter parameter is not set to 1 or greater, this is a finding.

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.

Fix

Log in to the FortiGate GUI with Super-Admin privilege. 1. Click System. 2. Click Settings. 3. Navigate to Password Policy. 4. On the Password scope option, click Admin. 5. Toggle Character requirements to right. 6. Enter the Lowercase value of 1. or Log in to the FortiGate GUI with Super-Admin privilege. 1. Open a CLI console, via SSH or available from the GUI. 2. Run the following command: # config system password-policy # set min-lower-case-letter 1 # end