Ensure PAM Enforces Password Requirements - Minimum Uppercase Characters

Description

The pam_pwquality module’s ucredit= parameter controls requirements for usage of uppercase letters in a password. When set to a negative number, any password will be required to contain that many uppercase characters. When set to a positive number, pam_pwquality will grant +1 additional length credit for each uppercase character. Modify the ucredit setting in /etc/security/pwquality.conf to require the use of an uppercase character in passwords.

Rationale

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.

Remediation

Shell script

The following script can be run on the host to remediate the issue.

#!/bin/bash

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if dpkg-query --show --showformat='${db:Status-Status}' 'libpwquality1' 2>/dev/null | grep -q '^installed$'; then

var_password_pam_ucredit='-1'








# Strip any search characters in the key arg so that the key can be replaced without
# adding any search characters to the config file.
stripped_key=$(sed 's/[\^=\$,;+]*//g' <<< "^ucredit")

# shellcheck disable=SC2059
printf -v formatted_output "%s = %s" "$stripped_key" "$var_password_pam_ucredit"

# If the key exists, change it. Otherwise, add it to the config_file.
# We search for the key string followed by a word boundary (matched by \>),
# so if we search for 'setting', 'setting2' won't match.
if LC_ALL=C grep -q -m 1 -i -e "^ucredit\\>" "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"; then
    escaped_formatted_output=$(sed -e 's|/|\\/|g' <<< "$formatted_output")
    LC_ALL=C sed -i --follow-symlinks "s/^ucredit\\>.*/$escaped_formatted_output/gi" "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"
else
    if [[ -s "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" ]] && [[ -n "$(tail -c 1 -- "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" || true)" ]]; then
        LC_ALL=C sed -i --follow-symlinks '$a'\\ "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"
    fi
    printf '%s\n' "$formatted_output" >> "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"
fi

else
    >&2 echo 'Remediation is not applicable, nothing was done'
fi

Ansible playbook

The following playbook can be run with Ansible to remediate the issue.

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - DISA-STIG-UBTU-20-010050
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(1)(a)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(4)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(c)
  - PCI-DSS-Req-8.2.3
  - accounts_password_pam_ucredit
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - restrict_strategy
- name: XCCDF Value var_password_pam_ucredit # promote to variable
  set_fact:
    var_password_pam_ucredit: !!str -1
  tags:
    - always

- name: Ensure PAM Enforces Password Requirements - Minimum Uppercase Characters -
    Check if system relies on pam-auth-update tool
  ansible.builtin.stat:
    path: /usr/sbin/pam-auth-update
  register: result_pam_auth_update_present
  when: '"libpwquality1" in ansible_facts.packages'
  tags:
  - DISA-STIG-UBTU-20-010050
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(1)(a)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(4)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(c)
  - PCI-DSS-Req-8.2.3
  - accounts_password_pam_ucredit
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - restrict_strategy

- name: Ensure PAM Enforces Password Requirements - Minimum Uppercase Characters -
    Remediation where pam-auth-update tool is present
  block:

  - name: Check if /usr/share/pam-configs/cac_pwquality exists
    stat:
      path: /usr/share/pam-configs/cac_pwquality
    register: pwquality_file_stat

  - name: Put the content into /usr/share/pam-configs/cac_pwquality if it does not
      exist
    copy:
      dest: /usr/share/pam-configs/cac_pwquality
      content: |
        Name: Pwquality password strength checking
        Default: yes
        Priority: 1024
        Conflicts: cracklib
        Password-Type: Primary
        Password:
          requisite           pam_pwquality.so retry=3
      force: true
    when: not pwquality_file_stat.stat.exists

  - name: Ensure PAM Enforces Password Requirements - Minimum Uppercase Characters
      - Ensure pam-auth-update profile changes are applied
    ansible.builtin.command:
      cmd: pam-auth-update --enable cac_pwquality
  when:
  - '"libpwquality1" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - result_pam_auth_update_present.stat.exists
  tags:
  - DISA-STIG-UBTU-20-010050
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(1)(a)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(4)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(c)
  - PCI-DSS-Req-8.2.3
  - accounts_password_pam_ucredit
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - restrict_strategy

- name: Ensure PAM Enforces Password Requirements - Minimum Uppercase Characters -
    Ensure PAM variable ucredit is set accordingly
  ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
    create: true
    dest: /etc/security/pwquality.conf
    regexp: ^#?\s*ucredit
    line: ucredit = {{ var_password_pam_ucredit }}
  when: '"libpwquality1" in ansible_facts.packages'
  tags:
  - DISA-STIG-UBTU-20-010050
  - NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(1)(a)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(4)
  - NIST-800-53-IA-5(c)
  - PCI-DSS-Req-8.2.3
  - accounts_password_pam_ucredit
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - medium_severity
  - no_reboot_needed
  - restrict_strategy