V-274161

Discussion

Enabling PAM password complexity permits enforcement of strong passwords and consequently makes the system less prone to dictionary attacks.

Check Content

Verify Amazon Linux 2023 uses "pwquality" to enforce the password complexity rules in the password-auth file with the following command:

$ grep pam_pwquality /etc/pam.d/password-auth
password required pam_pwquality.so 

If the command does not return a line containing the value "pam_pwquality.so", or the line is commented out, this is a finding.

If the system administrator can demonstrate that the required configuration is contained in a PAM configuration file included or substacked from the system-auth file, this is not a finding.