PAM PassPhrase Policy Implementation

Here are the step by step information:

To make every user on system choose strong passwords, in order to minimize hacking risks, one can implement the passphrase policy using below instructions.

Download “pam_passwdqc” module from given link.

http://www.openwall.com/passwdqc/

FTP the downloaded file “pam_passwdqc-1.0.2.tar.gz” to linux server in any directory of your choice.

Unzip and untar the same. It will generate in “pam_passwdqc-1.0.2” directory.

Enter into that directory and execute following commands.

make

make install

This will generate the “pam_passwdqc.so” binary file and copy the same into /lib/security.

Change directory to /etc/pam.d and backup the original “system-auth” file.

Open “system-auth” file using vi editor and uncomment following line.

password    required      /lib/security/$ISA/pam_cracklib.so retry=3 type=

And insert following line in place of old line.

password    required      /lib/security/$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so