RHEL-10-600230 RHEL 10 must enforce password complexity by requiring at least one special character to be used.
All changes in this version
Maps to IA-5(1) via CCI-004066
Title
RHEL 10 must enforce password complexity by requiring at least one special character to be used.
Control
Verify RHEL 10 enforces password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used with the following command: $ sudo grep -s ocredit /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf:# ocredit = 0 If the value of "ocredit" is a positive number or is commented out, this is a finding.
Discussion
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 must be tested before the password is compromised. RHEL 10 uses "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. Note that to require special characters without degrading the "minlen" value, the credit value must be expressed as a negative number in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf".
Related controls
CCI-004066
Fix
Configure RHEL 10 to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used by setting the "ocredit" 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 to contain the "ocredit" parameter: ocredit = -1