Operating systems must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one numeric character be used.

From Apple OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) Workstation Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000194

SV-72797r1_rule Operating systems must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one numeric character be used.

Vulnerability discussion

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 determine how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.

Check content

To check if the password policy is configured to require that at least one numeric character be used, run the following command: sudo pwpolicy getglobalpolicy | tr ' ' '\n' | grep requiresNumeric If the result is not 'requiresNumeric=1', and password policy is not controlled by a directory server, this is a finding.

Fix text

To set the password policy, run the following command: sudo pwpolicy setglobalpolicy 'requiresNumeric=1'

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