RHEL 9 must require the maximum number of repeating characters of the same character class be limited to four when passwords are changed.
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. Password complexity is one factor of several that determines how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex a password, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.
- ID
- SV-258113r1045232_rule
- Version
- RHEL-09-611120
- Severity
- Medium
- References
- Updated
Remediation Templates
A Manual Procedure
Configure RHEL 9 to require the change of the number of repeating characters of the same character class when passwords are changed by setting the "maxclassrepeat" 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 "maxclassrepeat" parameter:
maxclassrepeat = 4