Security Basics mailing list archives

Re: Policy enforcement- Admin accounts


From: Raoul Armfield <armfield () amnh org>
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:23:47 -0500

mgk, you are mistaking. Password policies are, as has been repeatedly stated in this thread, only possible on a domain wide basis.

Raoul

mgk.mailing wrote, On 12/18/2007 4:11 AM:
Guys. Afaik you can set in effect password polices on an ou basis. The polcies are setup via creation of a GPO and then applied to the OU. Depending on how inheritance is setup afaik the default settings will mean that the GPO closest to the active directory object (user / computer) will take effect.

Mgk


Paul J. Brickett wrote:
Charles is correct in regards to the inability to set password policies on an OU basis.

He is not correct in regards to the default domain Administrator account not being able to be locked. Please consult the following MS article, which describes how to configure the domain\administrator account to lockout using ADSIedit:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885119


On Mon, 17 Dec 2007, Can DEGER wrote:

Charles Hardin is absolutely right, on this subject, you cant set
password policies with OUs.. :(
thats why, security professionals advising the administrators, to
disable the "admin" account (even rename it)
and then use another account with the "admin" privileges. after you
have yourself that kind of an account you can set the account lockout
policy for it..
unfotunately password policies are set domain wide.

As Charles Hardin mentioned below, moving your accounts to another
domain, should establish a trust between your domain and admin domain,
so that management would not be a problem...




On Dec 17, 2007 6:34 PM, Charles Hardin <fonestorm () gmail com> wrote:
Sadly with AD you can only have one account security policy per
domain. You would need to make a second domain in your forest and move
your admin accounts there. Also remember the actual Administrator
account CANNOT be locked out.




On Dec 15, 2007 11:32 AM, WALI <hkhasgiwale () gmail com> wrote:
In an active directory environment (windows 2003), I want to ensure lockout for administrator accounts also, in order to protect against attempts to brute force account password. The flipside is, we might have a DoS situation but I can live with it. Is there a tool I can deploy to ensure that admin
account also locks out after certain no. of attemps?

Also, ONLY for admin accounts, I want to enforce certain settings like:
Password should contain atleast 15 characters, should not contain a
dictionary word etc.
My normal password policy for AD user accounts, set at the domain level is a minimum of 8 chars but I want to deploy this special policy of 15 chars
minimum for admin accounts.

How should I go about this?







--
Raoul Armfield
rarmfield at amnh dot org


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