The Photon operating system must be configured to use the pam_pwquality.so module.

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.

At the command line, run the following command to verify the pam_pwquality.so module is used: # grep '^password' /etc/pam.d/system-password Example result: password requisite pam_pwquality.so dcredit=-1 ucredit=-1 lcredit=-1 ocredit=-1 minlen=15 difok=8 enforce_for_root dictcheck=1 password required pam_pwhistory.so remember=5 retry=3 enforce_for_root use_authtok password required pam_unix.so sha512 use_authtok shadow try_first_pass If the pam_pwquality.so module is not present, this is a finding.

Navigate to and open: /etc/pam.d/system-password Add or update the pam_pwquality.so module line as follows: password requisite pam_pwquality.so dcredit=-1 ucredit=-1 lcredit=-1 ocredit=-1 minlen=15 difok=8 enforce_for_root dictcheck=1 Note: The line must be configured before pam_pwhistory.so. Note: On vCenter appliances, the equivalent file must be edited under "/etc/applmgmt/appliance", if one exists, for the changes to persist after a reboot.