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

From SUSE Linux Enterprise Server v11 for System z Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-001619

SV-44876r1_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/common-password-pc 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/common-password-pc" to include the line: password required pam_cracklib.so ocredit=-1

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