User passwords must be at least 15 characters in length.

From Solaris 11 X86 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000205

SV-60829r1_rule User passwords must be at least 15 characters in length.

Vulnerability discussion

Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting 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. The shorter the password is, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised. Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

Check content

Check the system password length setting. # grep ^PASSLENGTH /etc/default/passwd If PASSLENGTH is not set to 15 or more, this is a finding.

Fix text

The root role is required. # pfedit /etc/default/passwd Locate the line containing: PASSLENGTH Change the line to read PASSLENGTH=15

Pro Tips

Lavender hyperlinks in small type off to the right (of CSS class id, if you view the page source) point to globally unique URIs for each document and item. Copy the link location and paste anywhere you need to talk unambiguously about these things.

You can obtain data about documents and items in other formats. Simply provide an HTTP header Accept: text/turtle or Accept: application/rdf+xml.