SV-258110r1045223: RHEL 9 must prevent the use of dictionary words for passwords. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 STIG SCAP Benchmark

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

RHEL 9 must prevent the use of dictionary words for passwords.

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. If RHEL 9 allows the user to select passwords based on dictionary words, 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 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 5551

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.rhel9os:def:258110
# RHEL 9 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.

# passwords must not be dictionary words
# textfilecontent54_object (textfilecontent54_test)
test_1() {
  ( [ "$(sed -En 's/^\s*dictcheck\s*=\s*([-\d]+)\s*(?:#.*)?$/\1/p' '/etc/security/pwquality.conf')" -ne 0 ] ) || ( [ "$(grep -rhP --include='*.conf' '^\s*dictcheck\s*=\s*([-\d]+)\s*(?:#.*)?$' '/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d' | sed -En 's/^\s*dictcheck\s*=\s*([-\d]+)\s*(?:#.*)?$/\1/p')" -ne 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
# This script implements the OVAL definition oval:mil.disa.stig.rhel9os:def:258110
if grep -qE '^\\s*dictcheck\\s*=\\s*1\\s*$' /etc/security/pwquality.conf || [ -f /etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/dictcheck ]; then echo "PASS"; else echo "FAIL"; fi
exit 0

Remediation

Configure RHEL 9 to prevent the use of dictionary words for passwords.

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

dictcheck=1