Mastering Linux Security and Hardening - Second Edition

Hands-on lab for setting password complexity criteria

For this lab, you can use either the CentOS or Ubuntu virtual machine, as desired. The only difference is that you won't perform Step 1 for CentOS:

1. For Ubuntu only, install the libpam-pwquality package:

sudo apt install libpam-pwquality

2. Open the /etc/security/pwquality.conf file in your preferred text editor. Remove the comment symbol from in front of the minlen line and change the value to 19. It should now look like this:

 minlen = 19

Save the file and exit the editor.

3. Create a user account for Goldie and attempt to assign her the passwords turkeylips, TurkeyLips, and Turkey93Lips. Note the change in each warning message.
4. In the pwquality.conf file, comment out the minlen line. ...