RHEL 9 must require the change of at least eight characters when passwords are changed.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-258112 | SRG-OS-000072-GPOS-00040 | RHEL-09-611115 | SV-258112r1045229_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. Password complexity is one factor of several that determines 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. Requiring a minimum number of different characters during password changes ensures that newly changed passwords will not resemble previously compromised ones. Note that passwords changed on compromised systems will still be compromised. |
| ℹ️ Check |
|---|
| Verify that RHEL 9 requires the change of at least eight of the total number of characters when passwords are changed. $ grep difok /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf difok = 8 If the value of "difok" is set to less than "8", or is commented out, this is a finding. |
| ✔️ Fix |
|---|
| Configure RHEL 9 to require the change of at least eight of the total number of characters when passwords are changed by setting the "difok" 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 "difok" parameter: difok = 8 |