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The CA API Gateway must enforce a minimum 15-character password length.


Overview

Finding ID Version Rule ID IA Controls Severity
V-71531 CAGW-DM-000160 SV-86155r1_rule Medium
Description
Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password length is one factor of several that helps to determine strength and how long it takes to crack a password. The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised. Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.
STIG Date
CA API Gateway NDM Security Technical Implementation Guide 2016-09-20

Details

Check Text ( C-71903r1_chk )
Verify the CA API Gateway configuration files for passwords (/etc/login.defs, /etc/pam.d/password, /etc/pam.d/password-auth-ac, /etc/pam.d/system-auth, and /etc/pam.d/system-auth-ac) each have this line:

PASS_MIN_LEN 15.

If the CA API Gateway configuration files for passwords (/etc/login.defs, /etc/pam.d/password, /etc/pam.d/password-auth-ac, /etc/pam.d/system-auth, and /etc/pam.d/system-auth-ac) do not have the line requiring minimum 15-character password length, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-77851r1_fix)
In order to change the default setting:

- Log in to Gateway via SSH.
- Open /etc/login.defs.
- Change the value for PASS_MIN_LENGTH to desired value.

Then:

- Change the PASS_MIN_LENGTH field to desired value in the following files:
-- /etc/pam.d/password-auth
-- /etc/pam.d/password-auth-ac
-- /etc/pam.d/system-auth
-- /etc/pam.d/system-auth-ac

Note: Must be a value of "15" or greater.