RHEL 10 must require the change of at least four character classes when passwords are changed.

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 a password is, the greater the number of possible combinations that must be tested before the password is compromised.

Verify RHEL 10 sets the value of the "minclass" option in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" with the following command:

$ sudo grep -s minclass /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf:minclass = 4

If the value of "minclass" is set to less than "4" or is commented out, this is a finding.

Configure RHEL 10 to require the change of at least four character classes when passwords are changed by setting the "minclass" option.

Add or update the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file or a configuration file in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/" directory to contain the "minclass" parameter:

minclass = 4