Vulnerability Discussion

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.

Password complexity is one factor of several that determines how long it takes to crack a password. The more complex the password, the greater the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.

Check

Verify the Ubuntu operating system enforces password complexity by requiring that at least one numeric character be used.

Determine if the field "dcredit" is set in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file with the following command:

$ grep -i "dcredit" /etc/security/pwquality.conf
dcredit=-1

If the "dcredit" parameter is greater than "-1" or is commented out, this is a finding.

Fix

Configure the Ubuntu operating system to enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one numeric character be used.

Add or update the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file to contain the "dcredit" parameter:

dcredit=-1