The Cisco switch must be configured to enforce a minimum 15-character password length.
Overview
| Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
| V-220537 | CISC-ND-000550 | SV-220537r991912_rule | CCI-004066 | 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 | |||
| Cisco IOS XE Switch NDM Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2025-05-19 | |||
Details
Check Text (C-220537r991912_chk)
Review the Cisco switch configuration to verify that it is compliant with this requirement as shown in the example below:
aaa new-model
!
!
aaa common-criteria policy PASSWORD_POLICY
min-length 15
If the Cisco switch is not configured to enforce a minimum 15-character password length, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-22241r508556_fix)
Configure the Cisco switch to enforce a minimum 15-character password length as shown in the example below:
SW1(config)#aaa common-criteria policy PASSWORD_POLICY
SW1(config-cc-policy)#min-length 15
SW1(config-cc-policy)#exit