STIGUI
V-273199CAT II — Medium severitySV-273199r1098864_rule

Okta must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used.

Rule version OKTA-APP-000700 · STIG v1 · 2026-08-31

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 not alphanumeric. Examples include: ~ ! @ # $ % ^ *.

Check

From the Admin Console: 1. Select Security >> Authenticators. 2. Click the "Actions" button next to the "Password" row and select "Edit". 3. For each listed policy, verify "Symbol (e.g., !@#$%^&*)" is checked.

For each policy, if "Symbol (e.g., !@#$%^&*)" is not checked, this is a finding.

Fix

From the Admin Console: 1. Select Security >> Authenticators. 2. Click the "Actions" button next to the "Password" row and select "Edit". 3. For each listed policy: - Click "Edit". - Set "Symbol (e.g., !@#$%^&*)" to checked.

Identifiers

Group ID
V-273199
Group title
SRG-APP-000169
Rule ID
SV-273199r1098864_rule
Check ID
C-77290r1098862_chk
Fix ID
F-77195r1098863_fix