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V-204410

CAT II (Medium)

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that when passwords are changed or new passwords are established, the new password must contain at least one special character.

Rule ID

SV-204410r991561_rule

STIG

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V3R15

CCIs

CCI-001619

Discussion

Use of a complex password helps to increase the time and resources required to compromise the password. Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password complexity is one factor of several that determines how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.

Check Content

Verify the operating system enforces password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used.

Note: The value to require a number of special characters to be set is expressed as a negative number in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf".

Check the value for "ocredit" in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" with the following command:

# grep ocredit /etc/security/pwquality.conf 
ocredit=-1

If the value of "ocredit" is not set to a negative value, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the operating system to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used by setting the "ocredit" option.

Add the following line to "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" (or modify the line to have the required value):

ocredit = -1