RHEL 9 must require the maximum number of repeating characters be limited to three 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-258114r1045235_rule
- Version
- RHEL-09-611125
- Severity
- Medium
- References
- Updated
Remediation Templates
A Manual Procedure
Configure RHEL 9 to require the change of the number of repeating consecutive characters when passwords are changed by setting the "maxrepeat" 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 "maxrepeat" parameter:
maxrepeat = 3