SV-27111r4: The system must require that passwords contain a minimum of 15 characters. | HP-UX 11.23 Security Technical Implementation Guide

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

The system must require that passwords contain a minimum of 15 characters.

Description

Discussion Text

The use of longer passwords reduces the ability of attackers to successfully obtain valid passwords using guessing or exhaustive search techniques by increasing the password search space.

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

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000205

Additional Details

Responsibility

System Administrator

IA Controls

IAIA-2, IAIA-1

References

DPMS Target HP-UX 11.23 DISA DPMS Target HP-UX 11.23 2170

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.fso.hpux11:def:31
# The system must require that passwords contain a minimum of 15 characters.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# Ensure that MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH is at least 15.
# textfilecontent54_object (textfilecontent54_test)
test_1() {
  [ "$(sed -En 's/^[^#]*MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH[\s]*=[ \s]*([0-9]+)/\1/p' '/etc/default/security')" -ge 15 ]
}
# System is in Trusted Mode
# file_object (file_test)
test_2() {
  test -e '/etc/default' &>/dev/null
}

if ( test_1 && test_2 ); 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.fso.hpux11:def:31


if grep -q '^[^#]*MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH[\\s]*=[ \\s]*[0-9]*' /etc/default/security && awk '/^[^#]*MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH[\\s]*=[ \\s]*/{print $3}' /etc/default/security | grep -q '^15$' || awk '/^[^#]*MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH[\\s]*=[ \\s]*/{print $3}' /etc/default/security | grep -q '^[1-9][0-9]*$'; then
  echo "PASS"
  exit 0
else
  echo "FAIL"
  exit 1
fi

Remediation

For Trusted Mode:
Use the SAM/SMH interface to set the system password length attribute “MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH” to 15 or greater.

For SMSE:
Note: There may be additional package/bundle updates that must be installed to support attributes in the /etc/default/security file.

Install the additional LongPassword11i3 and PHI11i3 product bundles where/as required. Use the SAM/SMH interface (/etc/default/security file) and/or the userdbset command (/var/adm/userdb/* files) to update the attribute(s). See the below example(s):
CRYPT_ALGORITHMS_DEPRECATE=__unix__
CRYPT_DEFAULT=6
LONG_PASSWORD=1
MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH=15

Note: The MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH attribute must be set equal to or greater than 15.
If the "vi" editor was used to update the /etc/default/security file, save the file before exiting the editor.