OL 9 must ensure the password complexity module in the system-auth file is configured for three retries or less.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-271612 | SRG-OS-000069-GPOS-00037 | OL09-00-001001 | SV-271612r1091548_rule | 2025-05-08 | 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. "pwquality" enforces complex password construction configuration and has the ability to limit brute-force attacks on the system. OL 9 uses "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. This is set in both: /etc/pam.d/password-auth /etc/pam.d/system-auth By limiting the number of attempts to meet the pwquality module complexity requirements before returning with an error, the system will audit abnormal attempts at password changes. |
| ℹ️ Check |
|---|
| Verify that OL 9 is configured to limit the "pwquality" retry option to "3". Check for the use of the "pwquality" retry option in the system-auth file with the following command: $ grep pam_pwquality /etc/pam.d/system-auth password required pam_pwquality.so retry=3 If the value of "retry" is set to "0" or greater than "3", or is missing, this is a finding. |
| ✔️ Fix |
|---|
| Configure OL 9 to limit the "pwquality" retry option to "3". Add the following line to the "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" file (or modify the line to have the required value): password required pam_pwquality.so retry=3 |