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V-281193

CAT II (Medium)

RHEL 10 must enforce password complexity rules for the "root" account.

Rule ID

SV-281193r1166531_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. 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. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000072-GPOS-00040, SRG-OS-000071-GPOS-00039, SRG-OS-000070-GPOS-00038, SRG-OS-000266-GPOS-00101, SRG-OS-000078-GPOS-00046, SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00225, SRG-OS-000069-GPOS-00037

Check Content

Verify RHEL 10 enforces password complexity rules for the "root" account.

Check if "root" user is required to use complex passwords with the following command:

$ sudo grep enforce_for_root /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf
/etc/security/pwquality.conf:enforce_for_root

If "enforce_for_root" is commented out or is missing, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure RHEL 10 to enforce password complexity on the "root" account.

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 "enforce_for_root" parameter:

enforce_for_root