Setting a password policy

[Daniel Carrillo]

2009/7/3 a bv <vbavbalist at gmail.com>:
> Hi list,
>
> Im in a need of setting a password policy on some Redhat EL 3,4,5 x.
> Im giving the policy below and im asked to if this is possible and if
> how.
>
> -Passwords to change 90 days instead of 180
> -Password change must be forced by the system

As root:
$> chage -M 90 user_login

> -Password length must be at least 6 characters long
> -Last 3 passwords to be remembered by the system and dont let these to
> be used at the password change
> - When 6 logon attempt fails occur , the system to lock that ID/user
> -Complexity (optinional)

This behaviour (and something else) is managed by pam modules:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-5-manual/Deployment_Guide-en-US/ch-pam.html

Hope this helps.