RHEL 9 must enforce password complexity rules for the root account.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-258101	RHEL-09-611060	SV-258101r926290_rule		Medium

Description

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. 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

STIG	Date
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-12-01

Details

Check Text ( C-61842r926288_chk )
Verify that RHEL 9 enforces password complexity rules for the root account. Check if root user is required to use complex passwords with the following command: $ grep enforce_for_root /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf/*.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf:enforce_for_root If "enforce_for_root" is commented or missing, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-61766r926289_fix)
Configure RHEL 9 to enforce password complexity on the root account. Add or update the following line in /etc/security/pwquality.conf: enforce_for_root