V-11972

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 dcredit setting.

Procedure:
Check the password dcredit option
# grep pam_cracklib.so /etc/pam.d/common-password-pc

Confirm the dcredit option is set to -1 as in the example:

password required pam_cracklib.so dcredit=-1

There may be other options on the line. If no such line is found, or the dcredit option is not -1 this is a finding.