Set Password Maximum Consecutive Repeating Characters
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Description
The pam_pwquality module’s maxrepeat parameter controls requirements for
consecutive repeating characters. When set to a positive number, it will reject passwords
which contain more than that number of consecutive characters. Modify the maxrepeat setting
in /etc/security/pwquality.conf to equal 3 to prevent a
run of (3 + 1) or more identical characters.
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.
Passwords with excessive repeating characters may be more vulnerable to password-guessing attacks.
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 rpm --quiet -q pam; then
var_password_pam_maxrepeat='3'
# 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=$(sed 's/[\^=\$,;+]*//g' <<< "^maxrepeat")
# shellcheck disable=SC2059
printf -v formatted_output "%s = %s" "$stripped_key" "$var_password_pam_maxrepeat"
# If the key exists, change it. Otherwise, add it to the config_file.
# We search for the key string followed by a word boundary (matched by \>),
# so if we search for 'setting', 'setting2' won't match.
if LC_ALL=C grep -q -m 1 -i -e "^maxrepeat\\>" "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"; then
escaped_formatted_output=$(sed -e 's|/|\\/|g' <<< "$formatted_output")
LC_ALL=C sed -i --follow-symlinks "s/^maxrepeat\\>.*/$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
cce="CCE-82055-5"
printf '# Per %s: Set %s in %s\n' "${cce}" "${formatted_output}" "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" >> "/etc/security/pwquality.conf"
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:
- CCE-82055-5
- DISA-STIG-RHEL-07-010180
- NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
- NIST-800-53-IA-5(4)
- NIST-800-53-IA-5(c)
- accounts_password_pam_maxrepeat
- low_complexity
- low_disruption
- medium_severity
- no_reboot_needed
- restrict_strategy
- name: XCCDF Value var_password_pam_maxrepeat # promote to variable
set_fact:
var_password_pam_maxrepeat: !!str 3
tags:
- always
- name: Set Password Maximum Consecutive Repeating Characters - Ensure PAM variable
maxrepeat is set accordingly
ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
create: true
dest: /etc/security/pwquality.conf
regexp: ^#?\s*maxrepeat
line: maxrepeat = {{ var_password_pam_maxrepeat }}
when: '"pam" in ansible_facts.packages'
tags:
- CCE-82055-5
- DISA-STIG-RHEL-07-010180
- NIST-800-53-CM-6(a)
- NIST-800-53-IA-5(4)
- NIST-800-53-IA-5(c)
- accounts_password_pam_maxrepeat
- low_complexity
- low_disruption
- medium_severity
- no_reboot_needed
- restrict_strategy
