Title

SLEM 5 must enforce passwords that contain at least one numeric character. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Use of a complex password helps 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

Verify SLEM 5 enforces password complexity by requiring at least one numeric character with the following command: > grep pam_cracklib.so /etc/pam.d/common-password password requisite pam_cracklib.so dcredit=-1 If the value for "dcredit" is not "-1", if "dcredit" is missing from the line, the second column value different from "requisite", the line is commented out, or the line is missing, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure SLEM 5 to enforce password complexity by requiring at least one numeric character. Edit "/etc/pam.d/common-password" and edit the line containing "pam_cracklib.so" to contain the option "dcredit=-1" after the third column.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-261379r996570_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-261379

Group Title: SRG-OS-000071-GPOS-00039

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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