The system must require passwords to contain at least one uppercase alphabetic character.

From Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Part of SRG-OS-000069

Associated with: CCI-000192

SV-50370r2_rule The system must require passwords to contain at least one uppercase alphabetic character.

Vulnerability discussion

Requiring a minimum number of uppercase characters makes password guessing attacks more difficult by ensuring a larger search space.

Check content

To check how many uppercase characters are required in a password, run the following command: $ grep pam_cracklib /etc/pam.d/system-auth /etc/pam.d/password-auth Note: The "ucredit" parameter (as a negative number) will indicate how many uppercase characters are required. The DoD requires at least one uppercase character in a password. This would appear as "ucredit=-1". If “ucredit” is not found or not set to the required value, this is a finding.

Fix text

The pam_cracklib module's "ucredit=" parameter controls requirements for usage of uppercase letters in a password. When set to a negative number, any password will be required to contain that many uppercase characters. When set to a positive number, pam_cracklib will grant +1 additional length credit for each uppercase character. Edit /etc/pam.d/system-auth and /etc/pam.d/password-auth adding "ucredit=-1" after pam_cracklib.so to require use of an uppercase character in passwords.

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.

Powered by sagemincer