OL08-00-020170 - OL 8 must require the change of at least eight characters when passwords are changed.

Information

Use of 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.

OL 8 uses 'pwquality' as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. The 'difok' option sets the number of characters in a password that must not be present in the old password.

Solution

Configure OL 8 to require the change of at least eight of the total number of characters when passwords are changed by setting the 'difok' option.

Add or update the following line in the '/etc/security/pwquality.conf' file or a configuration file in the '/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/' directory:

difok = 8

Remove any configurations that conflict with the above value.

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_Oracle_Linux_8_V2R1_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1)(a), CAT|III, CCI|CCI-004066, Rule-ID|SV-248693r986357_rule, STIG-ID|OL08-00-020170, Vuln-ID|V-248693

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: f12f59831b24c2c0710f7b39155aaff38c310f97514a7050aa036e9187d04925