Title

User passwords must be at least 15 characters in length. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

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

Check Content

Check the system password length setting. # grep ^PASSLENGTH /etc/default/passwd If PASSLENGTH is not set to 15 or more, this is a finding.

Fix Text

The root role is required. # pfedit /etc/default/passwd Locate the line containing: PASSLENGTH Change the line to read PASSLENGTH=15

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-216089r603268_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-216089

Group Title: SRG-OS-000078

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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