Ensure PAM Enforces Password Requirements - Minimum Length

An XCCDF Rule

Description

The pam_pwquality module's minlen parameter controls requirements for minimum characters required in a password. Add minlen= after pam_pwquality to set minimum password length requirements.

Rationale

The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.
Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password length is one factor of several that helps to determine strength and how long it takes to crack a password. Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

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

A.11.SEC-RHEL3

1 12 15 16 5

5.6.2.1.1

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

CCI-000205

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-000078-GPOS-00046

5.5.1

CCE-83579-3

RHEL-09-611090

SV-258107r926308_rule
Updated: about 1 year ago

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

var_password_pam_minlen='<xccdf-1.2:sub xmlns:xccdf-1.2="http://checklists.nist.gov/xccdf/1.2" idref="xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_value_var_password_pam_minlen" 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' <<< "^minlen")

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

# 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 "^minlen\\>" "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"; then
    escaped_formatted_output=$(sed -e 's|/|\\/|g' <<< "$formatted_output")
    LC_ALL=C sed -i --follow-symlinks "s/^minlen\\>.*/$escaped_formatted_output/gi" "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"
else
    if [[ -s "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" ]] && [[ -n "$(tail -c 1 -- "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" || true)" ]]; then
        LC_ALL=C sed -i --follow-symlinks '$a'\\ "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"
    fi
    cce="CCE-83579-3"
    printf '# Per %s: Set %s in %s\n' "${cce}" "${formatted_output}" "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" >> "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"
    printf '%s\n' "$formatted_output" >> "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"
fi

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

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - CCE-83579-3
  - CJIS-5.6.2.1.1  - DISA-STIG-RHEL-09-611090
  - 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_minlen
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - restrict_strategy
- name: XCCDF Value var_password_pam_minlen # promote to variable
  set_fact:
    var_password_pam_minlen: !!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_minlen" use="legacy"/>
  tags:
    - always

- name: Ensure PAM Enforces Password Requirements - Minimum Length - Ensure PAM variable
    minlen is set accordingly
  ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
    create: true
    dest: /etc/security/pwquality.conf
    regexp: ^#?\s*minlen
    line: minlen = {{ var_password_pam_minlen }}
  when: '"pam" in ansible_facts.packages'
  tags:
  - CCE-83579-3
  - CJIS-5.6.2.1.1
  - DISA-STIG-RHEL-09-611090
  - 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_minlen
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - restrict_strategy

Ensure PAM Enforces Password Requirements - Minimum Length

Description

Rationale

Remediation - Shell Script

Remediation - Ansible