The operating system must enforce a minimum 15-character password length.

STIG ID: SRG-OS-000078-GPOS-00046  |  SRG: SRG-OS-000078 |  Severity: medium |  CCI: CCI-000205 |  Vulnerability Id: V-203634 | 

Vulnerability Discussion

The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.

Password complexity, or strength, is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting attempts at guessing and brute-force attacks. Password length is one factor of several that helps to determine strength and how long it takes to crack a password. Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password.

Check

Verify the operating system enforces a minimum 15-character password length. If it does not, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the operating system to enforce a minimum 15-character password length.