SV-219210r991561: The Ubuntu operating system must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used. | Canonical Ubuntu 18.04 LTS STIG SCAP Benchmark

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

The Ubuntu operating system must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used.

Description

Discussion Text

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 in determining 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. Special characters are those characters that are not alphanumeric. Examples include: ~ ! @ # $ % ^ *.

How this relates to the STIG checklist: STIG vs SCAP benchmark.

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-001619SV-109751V-100647

References

DPMS Target Canonical Ubuntu 18.04 LTS DISA DPMS Target Canonical Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4055

Checks

DISA STIG (Manual Reference)

Determine if the field "ocredit" is set in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file with the following command:

# grep -i "ocredit" /etc/security/pwquality.conf 
ocredit=-1

If the "ocredit" parameter is greater than "-1", or is commented out, this is a finding.

SCC Automation Reference

The reconstructed evaluation script behind this rule's OVAL check(s) — every module a compound check combines, with this rule's own concrete values and DISA's SCC tool's real per-module mechanism curated from static teardown of SCC releases.

#!/bin/bash
# Reconstructed from oval:mil.disa.stig.ubuntu1804os:def:219210
# The Ubuntu operating system must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# Passwords contain at least one special character
# textfilecontent54_object (textfilecontent54_test)
test_1() {
  ( [ "$(sed -En 's/^\s*ocredit\s*=\s*(-?\d*)\s*(?:#.*)?$/\1/p' '/etc/security/pwquality.conf')" -lt 0 ] ) || ( [ "$(grep -rhP --include='*.conf' '^\s*ocredit\s*=\s*(-?\d*)\s*(?:#.*)?$' '/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d' | sed -En 's/^\s*ocredit\s*=\s*(-?\d*)\s*(?:#.*)?$/\1/p')" -lt 0 ] )
}

if test_1; then
  echo "PASS"
else
  echo "FAIL"
fi

Assessment Script Powered by AISandbox-executed

A standalone Shell script to assess this control automatically. Review before running it in your environment.

Syntax-checked and actually executed in an isolated sandbox (not the real system this checks) — confirmed to run without errors.

#!/bin/sh
# OVAL Definition: oval:mil.disa.stig.ubuntu1804os:def:219210
if [ ! -f "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if grep -qE "^\\s*ocredit\\s*=\\s*(-?\\d*)\\s*$" /etc/security/pwquality.conf && [ $(grep -c "^\\s*ocredit\\s*=\\s*(-?\\d*)\\s*$" /etc/security/pwquality.conf) -ge 1 ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
echo "FAIL"; exit 1

Remediation

Configure the Ubuntu operating system to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one special character be used. 

Add or update the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file to include the "ocredit=-1" parameter:

ocredit=-1