User passwords must be at least 15 characters in length.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-216089 | SRG-OS-000078 | SOL-11.1-040040 | SV-216089r1016285_rule | 2026-02-19 | 3 |
Description
Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting guessing and brute-force attacks.
Password length is one factor of several that helps to determine strength and how long it takes to crack a password. The shorter the password is, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.
Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.
ℹ️ Check
Check the system password length setting.
# grep ^PASSLENGTH /etc/default/passwd
If PASSLENGTH is not set to 15 or more, this is a finding.
✔️ Fix
The root role is required.
# pfedit /etc/default/passwd
Locate the line containing:
PASSLENGTH
Change the line to read:
PASSLENGTH=15