Secure Passwords

[David A. Bandel]

On Tue, 22 Apr 2003 14:21:49 -0700
Condon Thomas A KPWA <tcondon at kpt.nuwc.navy.mil> wrote:

> 
> Folks,
> 
> I know I should use special passwords that don't come from the
> dictionary and contain three of the main four items (upper case alpha,
> lower case alpha, numeric and special characters).  It was my
> understanding that requiring these was the default, but in retrospect
> I see I was wrong.  So, how do I require passwords of this type on a
> RedHat Linux system I was called in to help secure?  Any thoughts?
> 
> Or do I have to write a pre-processing script to check this?

An excerpt from my /etc/pam.d/passwd file:
# (Add `md5' after the module name to enable MD5 passwords the same way
# that`MD5_CRYPT_ENAB' would do under login.defs).
#
# The "obscure" option replaces the old `OBSCURE_CHECKS_ENAB' option in
# login.defs. Also the "min" and "max" options enforce the length of the
# new password.

password   required   pam_unix.so nullok obscure min=4

# Alternate strength checking for password. Note that this
# requires the libpam-cracklib package to be installed.
# You will need to comment out the password line above and
# uncomment the next two in order to use this.
# (Replaces the `OBSCURE_CHECKS_ENAB', `CRACKLIB_DICTPATH')
#
# password required       pam_cracklib.so retry=3 minlen=6 difok=3
# password required       pam_unix.so use_authtok nullok md5


Ciao,

David A. Bandel
-- 
Focus on the dream, not the competition.
		Nemesis Racing Team motto
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