topic root's password policy in Operating System - Linux

root's password policy

Danesh Qureshi — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:15:19 GMT

I have serveral servers running Red Hat advance server 3 and Advance server 4.

Can anyone tell me where do I find root's password policy?

Where do I lookup root's password length (what is the minimum and maximum length for password, where is root's password expiry displayed, what the threshold is before root account is locked, if root has password history and if password dictionary feature is set up?

Re: root's password policy

dirk dierickx — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 05:27:04 GMT

you can look up these things with the 'passwd -S ' command.

Re: root's password policy

Steven E. Protter — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 06:59:50 GMT

Shalom,

Linux uses cracklib to check for keywords and such with the root password and when root is used to set passwords.

History is also easy to implement.

There is no way to enforce a password policy on the root user. That is an organizational issue.

root for very good reasons can override any password policy you set for users, both for itself and other users.

There are valid reasons to override rules. Policy for root is a people issue and getting them to comply with organizational security guidelines.

SEP

Re: root's password policy

skt_skt — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:25:41 GMT

"chage -l root" would give some password aging relate information