V-238228

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. "pwquality" enforces complex password construction configuration and has the ability to limit brute-force attacks on the system.

Check Content

Verify the Ubuntu operating system has the "libpam-pwquality" package installed by running the following command: 
 
$ dpkg -l libpam-pwquality 
 
ii  libpam-pwquality:amd64            1.4.0-2               amd64             PAM module to check password strength 
 
If "libpam-pwquality" is not installed, this is a finding. 
 
Verify that the operating system uses "pwquality" to enforce the password complexity rules.  
 
Verify the pwquality module is being enforced by the Ubuntu operating system by running the following command: 
 
$ grep -i enforcing /etc/security/pwquality.conf 
 
enforcing = 1 
 
If the value of "enforcing" is not "1" or the line is commented out, this is a finding. 
 
Check for the use of "pwquality" with the following command: 
 
$ cat /etc/pam.d/common-password | grep requisite | grep pam_pwquality 
 
password requisite pam_pwquality.so retry=3 
 
If no output is returned or the line is commented out, this is a finding. 
 
If the value of "retry" is set to "0" or greater than "3", this is a finding.