V-261379

Discussion

Use of a complex password helps 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 SLEM 5 enforces password complexity by requiring at least one numeric character with the following command:

     > grep pam_cracklib.so /etc/pam.d/common-password
     password requisite pam_cracklib.so dcredit=-1

If the value for "dcredit" is not "-1", if "dcredit" is missing from the line, the second column value different from "requisite", the line is commented out, or the line is missing, this is a finding.