Title

The system must prevent the use of dictionary words for passwords. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

An easily guessable password provides an open door to any external or internal malicious intruder. Many computer compromises occur as the result of account name and password guessing. This is generally done by someone with an automated script using repeated logon attempts until the correct account and password pair is guessed. Utilities, such as cracklib, can be used to validate passwords are not dictionary words and meet other criteria during password changes.

Check Content

Check /etc/default/passwd for dictionary check configuration. # grep DICTION /etc/default/passwd If the DICTIONLIST or DICTIONDBDIR settings are not present, or are set to non-existent files or directories, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Edit /etc/default/passwd; add or set DICTIONLIST to the dictionary file and DICTIONDBDIR to a database directory such as /var/passwd. Generate the password dictionary by running the mkpwdict command.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-227594r603266_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-227594

Group Title: SRG-OS-000480

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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