Setting Strong Passwords

Passwords protect the data on your system and control access to your system by providing a means to verify identity and ensure individual accountability. On an HP XC system, you set passwords for several different users; none of these passwords are required to match:

Root user
MySQL system configuration database administrator
Nagios administrator
LSF administrator

The Linux operating system permits the root user (also known as the superuser) to have permissions that supersede those of ordinary users. The root user is generally the person who is responsible for system administration tasks and has access to all files, all user accounts, and all devices. The root user is not restricted from changing anything on the operating system. For this reason, the root user needs a special, unique password that must be closely guarded for security purposes.

Do not select a root or general user password that can be guessed by an unauthorized person. Because the root user has absolute power over the operating system, the root password must be carefully protected. The basic guideline is to make the password something that you can remember but difficult for someone else to guess.

Never share a password with anyone, and never write it down. If you have to write down a password to remember it, change the password.

These guidelines will help you determine strong passwords:

A password must contain a minimum of 6 to a maximum of 16 characters.
A password must contain a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters.
At least one of the first six characters in a password must be a number, a special character, or an uppercase letter.
HP recommends, but does not mandate, that you use a combination of numbers and special characters in a password such as the dollar sign ( $ ), the percent sign ( % ), the number sign ( # ), the period ( . ), the hyphen ( - ), the underscore ( _ ), or the at sign ( @ ). If you do not use a special character or number in the password, at least one of the first six characters must be an uppercase letter or a number.

When choosing a password, do not use any of the following:

Single words found in any dictionary in any language.
Personal information about you or your family or significant others such as first and last names, addresses, birth dates, telephone numbers, names of pets, and so on.
Any combination of single words in the dictionary and personal information.
An obvious sequence of numbers or letters, such as 789 or xyz.

Setting Strong Passwords

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