The Cisco switch must be configured to enforce a minimum 15-character password length.
Severity | Group ID | Group Title | Version | Rule ID | Date | STIG Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | V-220589 | SRG-APP-000164-NDM-000252 | CISC-ND-000550 | SV-220589r1015280_rule | 2025-02-20 | 3 |
| Description |
|---|
| 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. The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised. Use of more characters in a password helps to exponentially increase the time and/or resources required to compromise the password. |
| ℹ️ Check |
|---|
| Review the Cisco switch configuration to verify that it enforces a minimum 15-character password length as shown in the example below: aaa new-model ! ! aaa common-criteria policy PASSWORD_POLICY min-length 15 If the Cisco switch is not configured to enforce a minimum 15-character password length, this is a finding. |
| ✔️ Fix |
|---|
| Configure the Cisco switch to enforce a minimum 15-character password length as shown in the example below: SW1(config)#aaa common-criteria policy PASSWORD_POLICY SW1(config-cc-policy)#min-length 15 SW1(config-cc-policy)#exit |