OL08-00-020160 - OL 8 must require the change of at least four character classes 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 'minclass' option sets the minimum number of required classes of characters for the new password (digits, uppercase, lowercase, others).

Solution

Configure OL 8 to require the change of at least four character classes when passwords are changed by setting the 'minclass' 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:

minclass = 4

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_V2R2_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1)(b), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000195, CCI|CCI-004066, Rule-ID|SV-248692r1015052_rule, STIG-ID|OL08-00-020160, Vuln-ID|V-248692

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 68a5241a7ae7eab0badf3518928c3b6727d5d5e2d6505953967526f7cf7749b3