Security Basics mailing list archives

Betr.: Minimum password requirements


From: "Philip Wagenaar" <p.wagenaar () accon nl>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 10:22:01 +0200

Hi,

Depending on your company you might not want to delete an account after 44 days (30 + 14). Usually you want to archive 
account information for various reasons.

But what I really miss is the strength requirements for passwords... Can passwords be blanks? Can they contain the user 
name or company name? Does the password have to contain non-standard characters? Numbers? Caps?

All these rules won't do you any good if a user has the password ie. flower. It will take most programs to crack 
passwords only a few minutes to crack 'easy' passwords.

So I would also make a decission about passwords strength.

Met vriendelijke groet,

Philip Wagenaar
Junior Projectleider ICT

AccoN Accountants & Adviseurs
ICT Project Bureau
Postbus 5090
6802 EB Arnhem
The Netherlands

tel. +31 (0)26-3842384
fax. +31 (0)26-3630222
mobile: +31 (0)6-25388935
MSN/E-mail: p.wagenaar () accon nl
Yahoo: philip_wagenaar
http://www.accon.nl


"Randall M Gunning" <securityfocus () randygunning com> 15-07-04 17:26 >>>
I am working on implementing some minimum standards for our department. I am
wondering what the list thinks of these standards:

a. Passwords must be changed at least every 90 days.
b. Passwords cannot be changed for at least 14 days.
c. Previous passwords cannot be reused (at least the last 10).
d. User ids and passwords are "owned" by an individual and must not be
shared with others.
e. User accounts that have not been accessed (i.e. logged in to) for 30 days
will be deactivated.
f. Inactive user accounts will be deleted after 14 days.

The numbers I have used are what I used in the corporate world for systems
that had no special security requirements (i.e. they did not have any
confidential data on them). What are other people doing for this type of
standard, if anything? Also, if you had your choice (not subject to a
committee agreeing), what would you choose for these items? 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Randy




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