UBTU-24-400320 - Ubuntu 24.04 LTS must enforce a minimum 15-character password length.

Information

The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.

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. Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000078-GPOS-00046, SRG-OS-000730-GPOS-00190

Solution

Configure Ubuntu 24.04 LTS to enforce a minimum 15-character password length.

Add or modify the "minlen" parameter value to the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file:

minlen=15

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_CAN_Ubuntu_24-04_LTS_V1R1_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1)(a), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-004065, CCI|CCI-004066, Rule-ID|SV-270732r1066685_rule, STIG-ID|UBTU-24-400320, Vuln-ID|V-270732

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 9815395c6887845716cbcf6ae8d4d746a12e06588f12dc0cb92eb38afb372ed4