How to display password policy information for a user (Ubuntu)?
- by C.W.Holeman II
Ubuntu Documentation Ubuntu 9.04 Ubuntu Server Guide Security User Management states that there is a default minimum password length for Ubuntu:
By default, Ubuntu requires a minimum
password length of 4 characters
Is there a command for displaying the current password policies for a user (such as the chage command displays the password expiration information for a specific user)?
> sudo chage -l SomeUserName
Last password change : May 13, 2010
Password expires : never
Password inactive : never
Account expires : never
Minimum number of days between password change : 0
Maximum number of days between password change : 99999
Number of days of warning before password expires : 7
This is rather than examining various places that control the policy and interpreting them since this process could contain errors. A command that reports the composed policy would be used to check the policy setting steps.