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V-281191

CAT II (Medium)

RHEL 10 must prevent the use of dictionary words for passwords.

Rule ID

SV-281191r1195448_rule

STIG

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V1R1

CCIs

CCI-004066

Discussion

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. If RHEL 10 allows the user to select passwords based on dictionary words, this increases the chances of password compromise by increasing the opportunity for successful guesses and brute-force attacks. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00225, SRG-OS-000072-GPOS-00040

Check Content

Verify RHEL 10 prevents the use of dictionary words for passwords with the following command:

$ sudo grep -s dictcheck /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf
/etc/security/pwquality.conf:dictcheck=1

If "dictcheck" does not have a value other than "0" or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure RHEL 10 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/security/pwquality.conf.d/" directory to contain the "dictcheck" parameter:

dictcheck=1