V-261382

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.