RHEL-09-611060 - RHEL 9 must enforce password complexity rules for the root account.

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.

Satisfies: SRG-OS-000072-GPOS-00040, SRG-OS-000071-GPOS-00039, SRG-OS-000070-GPOS-00038, SRG-OS-000266-GPOS-00101, SRG-OS-000078-GPOS-00046, SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00225, SRG-OS-000069-GPOS-00037

Solution

Configure RHEL 9 to enforce password complexity on the root account.

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 to contain the "enforce_for_root" parameter:

enforce_for_root

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_RHEL_9_V2R3_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1)(a), 800-53|IA-5(1)(b), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000192, CCI|CCI-000193, CCI|CCI-000194, CCI|CCI-000195, CCI|CCI-000205, CCI|CCI-001619, CCI|CCI-004066, Rule-ID|SV-258101r1045204_rule, STIG-ID|RHEL-09-611060, Vuln-ID|V-258101

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: bb7c998ef875c7005ca0b433a70e08c1a1fd81c57dee4b4f909031a1b6e0372b