Amazon Linux 2023 must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one numeric character be used.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-274135	SRG-OS-000071-GPOS-00039	AZLX-23-002365	SV-274135r1120393_rule	2025-07-15	1

Description
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 determines 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. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000071-GPOS-00039, SRG-OS-000725-GPOS-00180

Description

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 determines 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. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000071-GPOS-00039, SRG-OS-000725-GPOS-00180

ℹ️ Check
Verify Amazon Linux 2023 enforces password complexity by requiring that at least one numeric character with the following command: $ sudo grep dcredit /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf dcredit = -1 If the value of "dcredit" is a positive number or is commented out, this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
Configure Amazon Linux 2023 to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one numeric character be used by setting the "dcredit" option. Add or update the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file or a configuration file in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/" directory to contain the "dcredit" parameter: dcredit = -1 Remove any configurations that conflict with the above value.

✔️ Fix

Configure Amazon Linux 2023 to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one numeric character be used by setting the "dcredit" option. Add or update the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file or a configuration file in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/" directory to contain the "dcredit" parameter: dcredit = -1 Remove any configurations that conflict with the above value.