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V-240406

CAT II (Medium)

The SLES for vRealize must enforce a minimum 15-character password length.

Rule ID

SV-240406r670959_rule

STIG

VMware vRealize Automation 7.x SLES Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V2R2

CCIs

CCI-000205

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 to determine strength and how long it takes to crack a password. Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

Check Content

Verify that the SLES for vRealize enforces a minimum 15-character password length by running the following command:

# grep pam_cracklib /etc/pam.d/common-password-vmware.local

# grep pam_cracklib /etc/pam.d/common-password

If "minlen" is not set to "15" or higher, this is a finding.

Fix Text

If "minlen" was not set at all in /etc/pam.d/common-password-vmware.local, run the following command:

# sed -i '/pam_cracklib.so/ s/$/ minlen=15/' /etc/pam.d/common-password-vmware.local

If "minlen" was set incorrectly then run the following command to set it to "15":

# sed -i '/pam_cracklib.so/ s/minlen=../minlen=15/' /etc/pam.d/common-password-vmware.local