SV-238227r991587: The Ubuntu operating system must prevent the use of dictionary words for passwords. | Canonical Ubuntu 20.04 LTS STIG SCAP Benchmark

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

The Ubuntu operating system must prevent the use of dictionary words for passwords.

Description

Discussion Text

If the Ubuntu operating system allows the user to select passwords based on dictionary words, then this increases the chances of password compromise by increasing the opportunity for successful guesses and brute-force attacks.

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

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000366

References

DPMS Target Canonical Ubuntu 20.04 LTS DISA DPMS Target Canonical Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5318

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.ubuntu2004:def:123
# The Ubuntu operating system must prevent the use of dictionary words for passwords.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# pwquality:dictcheck is 1 or more
# textfilecontent54_object (textfilecontent54_test)
test_1() {
  [ "$(sed -En 's/^\s*dictcheck[\s]*=[\s]*(-?\d+)(?:[\s]|$)/\1/p' '/etc/security/pwquality.conf')" -eq 1 ]
}

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
# DISA STIG / SCAP compliance check: oval:mil.disa.stig.ubuntu2004:def:123

if [ ! -f "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" ]; then
  echo "PASS"
  exit 0
fi

if grep -qE "^\\s*dictcheck[\\s]*=[\\s]*1" /etc/security/pwquality.conf; then
  echo "PASS"
  exit 0
fi

echo "FAIL"
exit 1

Remediation

Configure the Ubuntu operating system to prevent the use of dictionary words for passwords. 
 
Add or update the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file to include the "dictcheck=1" parameter: 
 
dictcheck=1