RHEL 9 must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one lowercase character be used.
An XCCDF Rule
Description
<VulnDiscussion>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. Requiring a minimum number of lowercase characters makes password guessing attacks more difficult by ensuring a larger search space.</VulnDiscussion><FalsePositives></FalsePositives><FalseNegatives></FalseNegatives><Documentable>false</Documentable><Mitigations></Mitigations><SeverityOverrideGuidance></SeverityOverrideGuidance><PotentialImpacts></PotentialImpacts><ThirdPartyTools></ThirdPartyTools><MitigationControl></MitigationControl><Responsibility></Responsibility><IAControls></IAControls>
- ID
- SV-258102r926293_rule
- Severity
- Medium
- References
- Updated
Remediation - Manual Procedure
Configure RHEL 9 to enforce password complexity by requiring at least one lowercase character be used by setting the "lcredit" option.
Add the following line to "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" (or modify the line to have the required value):
lcredit = -1