Splunk Enterprise must enforce a minimum 15-character password length for the account of last resort.
Overview
Finding ID
Version
Rule ID
IA Controls
Severity
V-221632
SPLK-CL-000360
SV-221632r1015823_rule
Medium
Description
The shorter the password, the lower the number of possible combinations that need to be tested before the password is compromised.
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.
In most enterprise environments, this requirement is usually mitigated by a properly configured external authentication system, like LDAP. Splunk local authentication takes precedence over other forms of authentication, and cannot be disabled. The mitigation settings in this requirement apply in the event a local account gets created, for example, an emergency account of last resort for recovery.