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V-279607

CAT II (Medium)

Nutanix OS must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one numeric character be used.

Rule ID

SV-279607r1192494_rule

STIG

Nutanix Acropolis GPOS Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R1

CCIs

CCI-004066

Discussion

Using 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 Nutanix AOS is configured to require complex passwords. Note: The value to require a number of numeric characters to be set is expressed as a negative number in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf".

Check the value for "dcredit" in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" using the following command.

$ sudo grep dcredit /etc/security/pwquality.conf 
dcredit = -1

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

Fix Text

Configure Nutanix OS to use complex passwords.

1. For AOS, enter the following command.

$ sudo salt-call state.sls security/CVM/pamCVM.sls

2. For Prism Central, enter the following command.

$ sudo salt-call state.sls security/PCVM/pamPCVM.sls

3. For Files, enter the following command.

$ sudo salt-call state.sls security/AFS/pamAFS.sls

4. For AHV OS CVM, enter the following command.

$ ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params enable-high-strength-password=true