Title

Ubuntu OS must enforce a minimum 15-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

Verify with the following command that the pwquality configuration file enforces a minimum 15-character password length: $ grep -i minlen /etc/security/pwquality.conf minlen = 15 If "minlen" is not "15" or higher, is commented out, or is missing, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure Ubuntu OS to enforce a minimum 15-character password length. Add or modify the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file: minlen = 15

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-275654r1148012_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-275654

Group Title: SRG-OS-000078-GPOS-00046

Expert Comments

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