Title

SLEM 5 must employ passwords with a minimum of 15 characters. (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 determine strength and how long it takes to crack a password. Use of more characters in a password helps exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

Check Content

Verify SLEM 5 enforces a minimum 15-character password length with the following command: > grep pam_cracklib.so /etc/pam.d/common-password password requisite pam_cracklib.so minlen=15 If the value for "minlen" is not "15" or greater, the "minlen" option is missing from the line, the second column has a 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 a minimum 15-character password length. Edit "/etc/pam.d/common-password" and edit the line containing "pam_cracklib.so" to contain the option "minlen=15" after the third column. The DOD standard requires a minimum 15-character password length.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-261382r996577_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-261382

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

Expert Comments

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