BaselineWatch
Desk
Your fleet and your work Fleetyour releases and the hardware they run onTriagewhat needs a decisionWatchlistthe products and platforms you runSaved searchesthe lists you come back to
This instance Sourceswhat is read, how often, under what termsDigestthe daily or weekly summary, and alerts
How it is drawn Appearancethe look and the colour schemeBrandingthe mark this instance wears
Owner sign-in

RHEL-09-611045 RHEL 9 must ensure the password complexity module is enabled in the system-auth file.

DISA STIG library V2R10
All changes in this version
first version loaded CAT II

Maps to CM-6 via CCI-000366

Title

RHEL 9 must ensure the password complexity module is enabled in the system-auth file.

Control

Verify RHEL 9 uses "pwquality" to enforce the password complexity rules in the system-auth file with the following command: $ grep pam_pwquality /etc/pam.d/system-auth password required pam_pwquality.so If the command does not return a line containing the value "pam_pwquality.so", or the line is commented out, this is a finding. If the system administrator (SA) can demonstrate that the required configuration is contained in a PAM configuration file included or substacked from the system-auth file, this is not a finding.

Discussion

Enabling PAM password complexity permits enforcement of strong passwords and consequently makes the system less prone to dictionary attacks.

Related controls

CCI-000366

Fix

Configure RHEL 9 to use "pwquality" to enforce password complexity rules. Add the following line to the "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" file(or modify the line to have the required value): password required pam_pwquality.so