RHEL-07-010160 - The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that when passwords are changed a minimum of eight of the total number of characters must be 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.

Solution

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

Add the following line to '/etc/security/pwquality.conf' (or modify the line to have the required value):

difok = 8

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_RHEL_7_V3R15_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1)(b), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000195, Rule-ID|SV-204411r982198_rule, STIG-ID|RHEL-07-010160, STIG-Legacy|SV-86535, STIG-Legacy|V-71911, Vuln-ID|V-204411

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: e9d1a31f3673195a123d9848487e586e9485a83f597d15e3a168c96c48371167