STIGUI
V-253096CAT II — Medium severitySV-253096r991587_rule

TOSS must prevent the use of dictionary words for passwords.

Rule version TOSS-04-040540 · STIG v2 · 2026-08-20

Discussion

If TOSS allows the user to select passwords based on dictionary words, then this increases the chances of password compromise by increasing the opportunity for successful guesses and brute-force attacks.

Check

Verify TOSS prevents the use of dictionary words for passwords.

Determine if the field "dictcheck" is set in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" or "/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf" files with the following command:

$ sudo grep -r dictcheck /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf.d

/etc/security/pwquality.conf:dictcheck=1

If the "dictcheck" parameter is not set to "1", or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure TOSS to prevent the use of dictionary words for passwords.

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

dictcheck=1

Identifiers

Group ID
V-253096
Group title
SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00225
Rule ID
SV-253096r991587_rule
Check ID
C-56549r824958_chk
Fix ID
F-56499r824959_fix