Title

AIX must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one upper-case character be used. (Cat I 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 determines 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.

Check Content

From the command prompt, run the following command to check the system default "minupperalpha" attribute value: # lssec -f /etc/security/user -s default -a minupperalpha The above command should yield the following output: default minupperalpha=1 If the default "minupperalpha" value is not set, or its value is less than "1", this is a finding. From the command prompt, run the following command to check "minupperalpha" attribute value for all accounts: # lsuser -a minupperalpha ALL The above command should yield the following output: root minupperalpha=2 user2 minupperalpha=2 user3 minupperalpha=1 If any user's "minupperalpha" value is less than "1", this is a finding.

Fix Text

From the command prompt, run the following command to set "minupperalpha=1" for the default stanza in "/etc/security/user": # chsec -f /etc/security/user -s default -a minupperalpha=1 For each user who has "minupperalpha=0", set its "minupperalpha" to "1" by running the following command from command prompt: # chsec -f /etc/security/user -s [user_name] -a minupperalpha=1

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-215217r1009535_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-215217

Group Title: SRG-OS-000069-GPOS-00037

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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