STIGUI
V-223500CAT II — Medium severitySV-223500r1225964_rule

CA-ACF2 must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used.

Rule version ACF2-ES-000820 · STIG v9 · 2026-09-01

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 in determining 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.

Special characters are those characters that are not alphanumeric. Examples include: ~ ! @ # $ % ^ *.

Check

From an ACF command screen enter: SET CONTROL(GSO) LIST PSWD

If PSWDPLST is coded as defined in CA ACF2 for z/OS Administration Guide, this is not a finding.

Fix

Configure Password option PSWDPLST as defined in CA ACF2 for z/OS Administration Guide.

Identifiers

Group ID
V-223500
Group title
SRG-OS-000266-GPOS-00101
Rule ID
SV-223500r1225964_rule
Check ID
C-25173r1001102_chk
Fix ID
F-25161r500634_fix