Title

The system must require passwords contain at least one uppercase alphabetic character. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

To enforce the use of complex passwords, minimum numbers of characters of different classes are mandated. The use of complex passwords reduces the ability of attackers to successfully obtain valid passwords using guessing or exhaustive search techniques. Complexity requirements increase the password search space by requiring users to construct passwords from a larger character set than they may otherwise use.

Check Content

Check the ucredit setting. # grep ucredit /etc/pam.d/common-password-pc If ucredit is not set to -1, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Edit /etc/pam.d/common-password-pc and set ucredit to -1.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-44866r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-11948

Group Title: GEN000600

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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