The system must require passwords contain at least one special character.

From Oracle Linux 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-001619

SV-64075r1_rule The system must require passwords contain at least one special character.

Vulnerability discussion

To enforce the use of complex passwords, minimum numbers of characters of different classes are mandated. The use of complex passwords reduces the ability of attackers to successfully obtain valid passwords using guessing or exhaustive search techniques. Complexity requirements increase the password search space by requiring users to construct passwords from a larger character set than they may otherwise use.

Check content

Check the ocredit setting. Procedure: Check the password ocredit option # grep pam_cracklib.so /etc/pam.d/system-auth Confirm the ocredit option is set to -1 as in the example: password required pam_cracklib.so ocredit=-1 There may be other options on the line. If no such line is found, or the ocredit is not -1 this is a finding.

Fix text

Edit "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" to include the line: password required pam_cracklib.so ocredit=-1 prior to the "password include system-auth-ac" line.

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.