Ensure PAM Enforces Password Requirements - Minimum Lowercase Characters

An XCCDF Rule

Description

The pam_pwquality module's lcredit parameter controls requirements for usage of lowercase letters in a password. When set to a negative number, any password will be required to contain that many lowercase characters. When set to a positive number, pam_pwquality will grant +1 additional length credit for each lowercase character. Modify the lcredit setting in /etc/security/pwquality.conf to require the use of a lowercase character in passwords.

Rationale

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 possble 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.

ID: xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_accounts_password_pam_lcredit
Severity: Medium
References: BP28(R18)

1 12 15 16 5

DSS05.04 DSS05.05 DSS05.07 DSS05.10 DSS06.03 DSS06.10

CCI-000193

4.3.3.2.2 4.3.3.5.1 4.3.3.5.2 4.3.3.6.1 4.3.3.6.2 4.3.3.6.3 4.3.3.6.4 4.3.3.6.5 4.3.3.6.6 4.3.3.6.7 4.3.3.6.8 4.3.3.6.9 4.3.3.7.2 4.3.3.7.4

SR 1.1 SR 1.10 SR 1.2 SR 1.3 SR 1.4 SR 1.5 SR 1.7 SR 1.8 SR 1.9 SR 2.1

0421 0422 0431 0974 1173 1401 1504 1505 1546 1557 1558 1559 1560 1561

A.18.1.4 A.7.1.1 A.9.2.1 A.9.2.2 A.9.2.3 A.9.2.4 A.9.2.6 A.9.3.1 A.9.4.2 A.9.4.3

CM-6(a) IA-5(1)(a) IA-5(4) IA-5(c)

PR.AC-1 PR.AC-6 PR.AC-7

FMT_SMF_EXT.1

Req-8.2.3

8.3.6

SRG-OS-000070-GPOS-00038
Updated: about 1 year ago

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(1)(a)  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(4)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(c)
  - PCI-DSS-Req-8.2.3
  - PCI-DSSv4-8.3.6
  - accounts_password_pam_lcredit
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - restrict_strategy
- name: XCCDF Value var_password_pam_lcredit # promote to variable
  set_fact:
    var_password_pam_lcredit: !!str <xccdf-1.2:sub xmlns:xccdf-1.2="http://checklists.nist.gov/xccdf/1.2" idref="xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_value_var_password_pam_lcredit" use="legacy"/>
  tags:
    - always

- name: Ensure PAM Enforces Password Requirements - Minimum Lowercase Characters -
    Ensure PAM variable lcredit is set accordingly
  ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
    create: true
    dest: /etc/security/pwquality.conf
    regexp: ^#?\s*lcredit
    line: lcredit = {{ var_password_pam_lcredit }}
  when: '"pam" in ansible_facts.packages'
  tags:
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(1)(a)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(4)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(c)
  - PCI-DSS-Req-8.2.3
  - PCI-DSSv4-8.3.6
  - accounts_password_pam_lcredit
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - restrict_strategy

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if rpm --quiet -q pam; then

var_password_pam_lcredit='<xccdf-1.2:sub xmlns:xccdf-1.2="http://checklists.nist.gov/xccdf/1.2" idref="xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_value_var_password_pam_lcredit" use="legacy"/>'





# Strip any search characters in the key arg so that the key can be replaced without
# adding any search characters to the config file.
stripped_key=$(sed 's/[\^=\$,;+]*//g' <<< "^lcredit")

# shellcheck disable=SC2059
printf -v formatted_output "%s = %s" "$stripped_key" "$var_password_pam_lcredit"

# If the key exists, change it. Otherwise, add it to the config_file.
# We search for the key string followed by a word boundary (matched by \>),
# so if we search for 'setting', 'setting2' won't match.
if LC_ALL=C grep -q -m 1 -i -e "^lcredit\\>" "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"; then
    escaped_formatted_output=$(sed -e 's|/|\\/|g' <<< "$formatted_output")
    LC_ALL=C sed -i --follow-symlinks "s/^lcredit\\>.*/$escaped_formatted_output/gi" "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"
else
    if [[ -s "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" ]] && [[ -n "$(tail -c 1 -- "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" || true)" ]]; then
        LC_ALL=C sed -i --follow-symlinks '$a'\\ "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"
    fi
    printf '%s\n' "$formatted_output" >> "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"
fi

else
    >&2 echo 'Remediation is not applicable, nothing was done'
fi

Ensure PAM Enforces Password Requirements - Minimum Lowercase Characters

Description

Rationale

Remediation - Ansible

Remediation - Shell Script