Vulnerability Discussion

If the SUSE operating system 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.

Check

Verify the SUSE operating system prevents the use of dictionary words for passwords.

Check that the SUSE operating system prevents the use of dictionary words for passwords with the following command:

# grep pam_cracklib.so /etc/pam.d/common-password
password requisite pam_cracklib.so retry=3

If the command does not return anything, or the returned line is commented out, this is a finding.

If the value of "retry" is greater than 3, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the SUSE operating system to prevent the use of dictionary words for passwords.

Edit "/etc/pam.d/common-password" and add the following line:

password requisite pam_cracklib.so retry=3