STIGUI
V-263640CAT II — Medium severitySV-263640r982539_rule

The DNS server implementation must, for password-based authentication, enforce organization-defined composition and complexity rules.

Rule version SRG-APP-000870-DNS-000270 · STIG v4 · 2026-09-01

Discussion

Password-based authentication applies to passwords regardless of whether they are used in single-factor or multifactor authentication. Long passwords or passphrases are preferable over shorter passwords. Enforced composition rules provide marginal security benefits while decreasing usability. However, organizations may choose to establish certain rules for password generation (e.g., minimum character length for long passwords) under certain circumstances and can enforce this requirement in IA-5(1)(h). Account recovery can occur, for example, in situations when a password is forgotten. Cryptographically protected passwords include salted one-way cryptographic hashes of passwords. The list of commonly used, compromised, or expected passwords includes passwords obtained from previous breach corpuses, dictionary words, and repetitive or sequential characters. The list includes context-specific words, such as the name of the service, username, and derivatives thereof.

Check

Verify the DNS server implementation is configured to enforce organization-defined composition and complexity rules.

If the DNS server implementation is not configured to enforce organization-defined composition and complexity rules, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the DNS server implementation to enforce organization-defined composition and complexity rules.

Identifiers

Group ID
V-263640
Group title
SRG-APP-000870
Rule ID
SV-263640r982539_rule
Check ID
C-67540r982538_chk
Fix ID
F-67448r982081_fix