OL 8 systems, version 8.4 and above, must ensure the password complexity module is configured for three retries or less.
An XCCDF Rule
Description
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. "pwquality" enforces complex password construction configuration and has the ability to limit brute-force attacks on the system. OL 8 utilizes "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. This is set in both: /etc/pam.d/password-auth /etc/pam.d/system-auth By limiting the number of attempts to meet the pwquality module complexity requirements before returning with an error, the system will audit abnormal attempts at password changes.
- ID
- SV-252660r991589_rule
- Version
- OL08-00-020104
- Severity
- Medium
- References
- Updated
Remediation Templates
A Manual Procedure
Configure the operating system to limit the "pwquality" retry option to 3.
Add the following line to the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file(or modify the line to have the required value):
retry = 3
Remove any configurations that conflict with the above value.