OL 8 must require the maximum number of repeating characters be limited to three when passwords are changed.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-248691	SRG-OS-000072-GPOS-00040	OL08-00-020150	SV-248691r1015051_rule	2025-02-20	2

Description
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. OL 8 uses "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. The "maxrepeat" option sets the maximum number of allowed same consecutive characters in a new password.

Description

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. OL 8 uses "pwquality" as a mechanism to enforce password complexity. The "maxrepeat" option sets the maximum number of allowed same consecutive characters in a new password.

ℹ️ Check
Check for the value of the "maxrepeat" option in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" or "/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/.conf" files with the following command: $ sudo grep -r maxrepeat /etc/security/pwquality.conf /etc/security/pwquality.conf:maxrepeat = 3 If the value of "maxrepeat" is set to more than "3" or is commented out, this is a finding. If conflicting results are returned, this is a finding.

ℹ️ Check

Check for the value of the "maxrepeat" option in "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" or "/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/*.conf" files with the following command: $ sudo grep -r maxrepeat /etc/security/pwquality.conf* /etc/security/pwquality.conf:maxrepeat = 3 If the value of "maxrepeat" is set to more than "3" or is commented out, this is a finding. If conflicting results are returned, this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
Configure OL 8 to require the change of the number of repeating consecutive characters when passwords are changed by setting the "maxrepeat" option. Add or update the following line in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf" file or a configuration file in the "/etc/security/pwquality.conf.d/" directory: maxrepeat = 3 Remove any configurations that conflict with the above value.