SV-281204r1197240: RHEL 10 must ensure the password complexity module in the system-auth file is configured for three or fewer retries. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 STIG SCAP Benchmark

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

RHEL 10 must ensure the password complexity module in the system-auth file is configured for three or fewer retries.

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. "pwquality" enforces complex password construction configuration and has the ability to limit brute-force attacks on the system. RHEL 10 uses "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. This is set in both of the following: "/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.

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

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-004066

References

DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 5733

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.rhel10os:def:281204
# RHEL 10 must ensure the password complexity module in the system-auth file is configured for three or fewer retries.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# /etc/security/pwquality.conf:retry not greater than 3 and not 0
# textfilecontent54_object (textfilecontent54_test)
test_1() {
  ( (sed -En 's/^\s*retry\s*=\s*(-?\d*)\s*(?:#.*)?$/\1/p' '/etc/security/pwquality.conf') | grep -Pq '^[123]$' ) || ( (grep -rhP --include='*.conf' '^\s*retry\s*=\s*(-?\d*)\s*(?:#.*)?$' '/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d' | sed -En 's/^\s*retry\s*=\s*(-?\d*)\s*(?:#.*)?$/\1/p') | grep -Pq '^[123]$' )
}

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:mil.disa.stig.rhel10os:def:281204
if [ ! -f "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if grep -qE "^\\s*retry\\s*=\\s*([123])\\s*(?:#.*)?$" /etc/security/pwquality.conf; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
if [ ! -d "/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d" ]; then echo "PASS"; exit 0; fi
for file in /etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf; do
    if grep -qE "^\\s*retry\\s*=\\s*([123])\\s*(?:#.*)?$" "$file"; then continue 2; fi
done
echo "FAIL"; exit 1

Remediation

Configure RHEL 10 to limit the "pwquality" retry option to "3".

Add or update the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file or a file in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/" directory to contain the "retry" parameter:

retry = 3