The system must require passwords contain a minimum of 15 characters.

From Oracle Linux 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000205

SV-63903r3_rule The system must require passwords contain a minimum of 15 characters.

Vulnerability discussion

The use of longer passwords reduces the ability of attackers to successfully obtain valid passwords using guessing or exhaustive search techniques by increasing the password search space.

Check content

Check the system password length setting. Procedure: Check the password minlen option # grep pam_cracklib.so /etc/pam.d/system-auth Confirm the minlen option is set to at least 15 as in the example below: password required pam_cracklib.so minlen=15 There may be other options on the line. If no such line is found, or the minlen is less than 15 this is a finding. # grep PASS_MIN_LEN /etc/login.defs Confirm the PASS_MIN_LEN option is set to at least 15 as in the example below: PASS_MIN_LEN 15 If this line does not exist, or is less than 15, this is a finding.

Fix text

Edit "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" to include the line: password required pam_cracklib.so minlen=15 prior to the "password include system-auth-ac" line. Edit /etc/login.defs to include the line: PASS_MIN_LEN 15

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