TOSS 5 must ensure the password complexity module in the system-auth file is configured for three retries or less.
Overview
| Finding ID | Version | Rule ID | IA Controls | Severity |
| V-282445 | TOSS-05-000330 | SV-282445r1200315_rule | CCI-004066 | 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. "pwquality" enforces complex password construction configuration and has the ability to limit brute-force attacks on the system. TOSS 5 uses "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. This is set in both: /etc/pam.d/password-auth /etc/pam.d/system-auth By limiting the number of attempts to meet the pwquality module complexity requirements before returning with an error, the system will audit abnormal attempts at password changes. | ||||
| STIG | Date | |||
| Tri-Lab Operating System Stack (TOSS) 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide | 2026-04-01 | |||
Details
Check Text (C-282445r1200315_chk)
Verify TOSS 5 is configured to limit the "pwquality" retry option to "3".
Verify the use of the "pwquality" retry option in the "system-auth file" using the following command:
$ cat /etc/pam.d/system-auth | grep pam_pwquality
password required pam_pwquality.so retry=3
If the value of "retry" is set to "0" or greater than "3", or is missing, this is a finding.
Fix Text (F-86911r1200314_fix)
Configure TOSS 5 to limit the "pwquality" retry option to "3".
Add the following line to the "/etc/pam.d/system-auth" file (or modify the line to have the required value):
password required pam_pwquality.so retry=3