STIG ID: ALMA-09-036320 | SRG: SRG-OS-000266-GPOS-00101 | Severity: medium | CCI: | Vulnerability Id: V-269390
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.
Configure AlmaLinux OS 9 to enforce password complexity by requiring at least one special character be used by setting the "ocredit" 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:
ocredit = -1
Remove any configurations that conflict with the above value.
Verify that AlmaLinux OS 9 enforces password complexity by requiring at least one special character with the following command:
$ grep -E ocredit /etc/security/pwquality.conf*
/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/stig.conf:ocredit = -1
If the value of "ocredit" is a positive number, is not set, is commented out, or if conflicting results are returned, this is a finding.