PHTN-40-000197 The Photon operating system must be configured to use the pam_pwquality.so module.

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

Navigate to and open:

/etc/pam.d/system-password

Add or update the pam_pwquality.so module line as follows:

password requisite pam_pwquality.so dcredit=-1 ucredit=-1 lcredit=-1 ocredit=-1 minlen=15 difok=8 enforce_for_root dictcheck=1

Note: The line must be configured before pam_pwhistory.so.

Note: On vCenter appliances, the equivalent file must be edited under "/etc/applmgmt/appliance", if one exists, for the changes to persist after a reboot.

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_VMW_vSphere_8-0_Y24M08_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1)(a), CAT|II, CCI|CCI-004066, Rule-ID|SV-258863r1003650_rule, STIG-ID|PHTN-40-000197, Vuln-ID|V-258863

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 5a8327c3bd18feee6dc51b3af7e038d127f3710b1d5f915df6aab6385f89cd8b