Title

The VMM must for password-based authentication, allow user selection of long passwords and passphrases, including spaces and all printable characters. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Password-based authentication applies to passwords regardless of whether they are used in single-factor or multifactor authentication. Long passwords or passphrases are preferable over shorter passwords. Enforced composition rules provide marginal security benefits while decreasing usability. However, organizations may choose to establish certain rules for password generation (e.g., minimum character length for long passwords) under certain circumstances and can enforce this requirement in IA-5(1)(h). Account recovery can occur, for example, in situations when a password is forgotten. Cryptographically protected passwords include salted one-way cryptographic hashes of passwords. The list of commonly used, compromised, or expected passwords includes passwords obtained from previous breach corpuses, dictionary words, and repetitive or sequential characters. The list includes context-specific words, such as the name of the service, username, and derivatives thereof.

Check Content

Verify the VMM is configured to allow user selection of long passwords and passphrases, including spaces and all printable characters. If the VMM is not configured to allow user selection of long passwords and passphrases, including spaces and all printable characters, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the VMM to allow user selection of long passwords and passphrases, including spaces and all printable characters.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-264320r984275_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-264320

Group Title: SRG-OS-000725

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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