Rule ID
SV-255506r984092_rule
Version
V1R2
CCIs
CCI-000205
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. The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised. Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.
Verify the CA API Gateway configuration files for passwords (/etc/login.defs, /etc/pam.d/password, /etc/pam.d/password-auth-ac, /etc/pam.d/system-auth, and /etc/pam.d/system-auth-ac) each have this line: PASS_MIN_LEN 15. If the CA API Gateway configuration files for passwords (/etc/login.defs, /etc/pam.d/password, /etc/pam.d/password-auth-ac, /etc/pam.d/system-auth, and /etc/pam.d/system-auth-ac) do not have the line requiring minimum 15-character password length, this is a finding.
In order to change the default setting: - Log in to Gateway via SSH. - Open /etc/login.defs. - Change the value for PASS_MIN_LENGTH to desired value. Then: - Change the PASS_MIN_LENGTH field to desired value in the following files: -- /etc/pam.d/password-auth -- /etc/pam.d/password-auth-ac -- /etc/pam.d/system-auth -- /etc/pam.d/system-auth-ac Note: Must be a value of "15" or greater.