Ensure PAM Enforces Password Requirements - Minimum Lowercase Characters
Description
The pam_pwquality module’s lcredit parameter controls requirements for
usage of lowercase letters in a password. When set to a negative number, any password will be required to
contain that many lowercase characters. When set to a positive number, pam_pwquality will grant +1 additional
length credit for each lowercase character. Modify the lcredit setting in
/etc/security/pwquality.conf to require the use of a lowercase 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
possble combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.
Requiring a minimum number of lowercase characters makes password guessing attacks
more difficult by ensuring a larger search space.
Shell script
The following script can be run on the host to remediate the issue.
# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if dpkg-query --show --showformat='${db:Status-Status}\n' 'libpam-runtime' 2>/dev/null | grep -q installed; then
var\_password\_pam\_lcredit='-1'
# Strip any search characters in the key arg so that the key can be replaced without
# adding any search characters to the config file.
stripped\_key=$(sed 's/[\^=\$,;+]\*//g' <<< "^lcredit")
# shellcheck disable=SC2059
printf -v formatted\_output "%s = %s" "$stripped\_key" "$var\_password\_pam\_lcredit"
# 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 "^lcredit\\>" "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"; then
escaped\_formatted\_output=$(sed -e 's|/|\\/|g' <<< "$formatted\_output")
LC\_ALL=C sed -i --follow-symlinks "s/^lcredit\\>.\*/$escaped\_formatted\_output/gi" "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"
else
if [[ -s "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" ]] && [[ -n "$(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-20-010051
- 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
- PCI-DSSv4-8.3.6
- PCI-DSSv4-8.3.9
- accounts\_password\_pam\_lcredit
- low\_complexity
- low\_disruption
- medium\_severity
- no\_reboot\_needed
- restrict\_strategy
- name: XCCDF Value var\_password\_pam\_lcredit # promote to variable
set\_fact:
var\_password\_pam\_lcredit: !!str -1
tags:
- always
- name: Ensure PAM Enforces Password Requirements - Minimum Lowercase Characters -
Ensure PAM variable lcredit is set accordingly
ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
create: true
dest: /etc/security/pwquality.conf
regexp: ^#?\s\*lcredit
line: lcredit = {{ var\_password\_pam\_lcredit }}
when: '"libpam-runtime" in ansible\_facts.packages'
tags:
- DISA-STIG-UBTU-20-010051
- 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
- PCI-DSSv4-8.3.6
- PCI-DSSv4-8.3.9
- accounts\_password\_pam\_lcredit
- low\_complexity
- low\_disruption
- medium\_severity
- no\_reboot\_needed
- restrict\_strategy
