RHEL 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-258091 | SRG-OS-000069-GPOS-00037 | RHEL-09-611010 | SV-258091r1045185_rule | 2025-02-27 | 2 |
| 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. RHEL 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 RHEL 9 is configured to limit the "pwquality" retry option to "3". Check for the use of the retry option in the security directory with the following command: $ grep -w retry /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf retry = 3 If the value of "retry" is set to "0" or greater than "3", or is missing, this is a finding. |
| ✔️ Fix |
|---|
| Configure RHEL 9 to limit the "pwquality" retry option to "3". Add or update the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file or a file in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/" directory to contain the "retry" parameter: retry = 3 |