Title

The operating system must enforce a minimum 8-character password length. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised. 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. Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

Check Content

From an ACF command screen enter: SET CONTROL(GSO) LIST PSWD If "MINPSWD" is set to "8", this is not a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the Password option "MINPSWD" to "8".

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-252705r916433_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-252705

Group Title: SRG-OS-000481-GPOS-00481

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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