SV-258091r1208774: RHEL 9 must ensure the password complexity module in the system-auth file is configured for three retries or less. | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 STIG SCAP Benchmark

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

RHEL 9 must ensure the password complexity module in the system-auth file is configured for three retries or less.

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. 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-004066Not mappedCCI-000192

References

DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 DISA DPMS Target Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 5551

Checks

DISA STIG (Manual Reference)

Verify RHEL 9 is configured to limit the "pwquality" retry option to "3".

Check for the use of the retry option in the security directory with the following command:

$ grep -w retry /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf
 
retry = 3
 
If the value of "retry" is set to "0" or greater than "3", or is missing, 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.rhel9os:def:258091
# RHEL 9 must ensure the password complexity module in the system-auth file is configured for three retries or less.
# 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

Remediation

Configure RHEL 9 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