STIGUI
V-260561CAT II — Medium severitySV-260561r1015013_rule

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS must enforce password complexity by requiring at least one lowercase character be used.

Rule version UBTU-22-611015 · STIG v2 · 2026-09-09

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 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.

Check

Verify Ubuntu 22.04 LTS enforces password complexity by requiring that at least one lowercase character be used by using the following command:

     $ grep -i lcredit /etc/security/pwquality.conf 
     lcredit = -1  

If "lcredit" is greater than "-1", is commented out, or is missing, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure Ubuntu 22.04 LTS to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one lowercase character be used.

Add or modify the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file:

lcredit = -1

Identifiers

Group ID
V-260561
Group title
SRG-OS-000070-GPOS-00038
Rule ID
SV-260561r1015013_rule
Check ID
C-64290r953494_chk
Fix ID
F-64198r953495_fix