STIGUI
V-282448CAT II — Medium severitySV-282448r1200324_rule

TOSS 5 must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one lowercase character be used.

Rule version TOSS-05-000339 · STIG v1 · 2026-08-20

Discussion

Using 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 must be tested before the password is compromised. Requiring a minimum number of lowercase characters makes password guessing attacks more difficult by ensuring a larger search space.

Check

Verify TOSS 5 enforces password complexity by requiring at least one lowercase character.

Check the value for "lcredit" using the following command:

$ sudo grep lcredit /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf/*.conf 

/etc/security/pwquality.conf:lcredit = -1

If the value of "lcredit" is a positive number or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure TOSS 5 to enforce password complexity by requiring at least one lowercase character be used by setting the "lcredit" option.

Add the following line to "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" (or modify the line to have the required value):

lcredit = -1

Identifiers

Group ID
V-282448
Group title
SRG-OS-000070-GPOS-00038
Rule ID
SV-282448r1200324_rule
Check ID
C-87009r1200322_chk
Fix ID
F-86914r1200323_fix