Account Password Rules
desktop client only
Navigate to Administrative Tools | Settings | Password Management. | Account Password Rules.
Account password rules govern the construction of a new password created by Safeguard for Privileged Passwords during an automatic account password change. You can create rules governing the allowable account passwords, such as:
- Set the allowable password length in a range from three to 225 characters.
- Set first characters type and last character type.
- Allow uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and/or printable ASCII symbols along with the minimum amounts of each.
- Identify excluded uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
- Identify if consecutive letters, numbers, and/or symbols can be repeated sequentially and, if allowed, set the maximum repetitions allowed.
Navigate to Administrative Tools | Settings | Password Management | Account Password Rules.
Use these toolbar buttons to manage your account password rules.
Table 170: Account Password Rules: Toolbar
 Add Account Password Rule |
Add an account password complexity rule. For more information, see Adding an account password rule. |
 Delete Selected |
Remove the selected rule. |
 Refresh |
Update the list of account password rules. |
 Edit |
Modify the selected rule. |
 Copy |
Clone the selected rule. |
Adding an account password rule
desktop client only
It is the responsibility of the Asset Administrator, or a partition's delegated administrator, to configure account password complexity rules.
Important:
Some Unix systems silently truncate passwords to their maximum allowed length. For example, Macintosh OS X only allows a password of 128 characters. If an Asset Administrator creates a profile with an Account Password Rule that sets the password length to 136 characters, when Safeguard for Privileged Passwords changes the password for an account governed by that profile, the asset's operating system truncates the new password to the allowable length and does not return an error; however, the full 136-character password is stored in Safeguard for Privileged Passwords. This causes the following issues:
To add an account password rule
- Navigate to Administrative Tools | Settings | Password Management | Account Password Rules.
- Click
Add Account Password Rule to open the Account Password Rule dialog.
- Browse to select the partition.
- Enter a Name for the account password rule (up to 50 characters).
- Enter a Description for the account password rule (up to 255 characters).
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Set the password requirements.
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Password Length: Set a range for the password allowable length from three to 255 characters. The default is 8 to 64 characters. The maximum length must be equal to or greater than the sum of minimum characters required in the following steps. For example, if the password must have two uppercase letters, two lowercase letters, and two numeric characters, the minimum Password Length must be six. Note that a diacritical letter is one character.
- First Character Type: Choose one of the following:
- All: Alphabetical, numeric, or symbols
- Alphanumeric: Alphabetical or numeric
- Alphabetic: Only alphabetical characters
- Last Character Type: Choose one of the following:
- All: Alphabetical, numeric, or symbols
- Alphanumeric: Alphabetical or numeric
- Alphabetic: Only alphabetical characters
- Repeated Characters: Choose one of the following:
- Allow repeated characters: Any letters, numbers, or symbols can be repeated in any order, including consecutively.
- No consecutive repeated characters: No letter, number, or symbol can be repeated after itself. You can restrict the number of consecutively repeated characters later by uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, symbols, or a combination of those.
- No repeated characters: All letters, numbers, or symbols can only be used once in the password.
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Allow Uppercase: Select to allow uppercase (capital) letters. In the desktop client, click Advanced, as needed.
- Require a Minimum of Uppercase Characters: Enter a number to identify the least number of uppercase letters required. To allow but not require uppercase letters, set this value at zero.
- Limit Consecutively Repeated Uppercase Characters: If you allowed repeated characters earlier, select the check box to limit the number of consecutively repeated uppercase letters. You must enter a Maximum Allowed Characters value of one or more.
- Exclude these Uppercase Characters: Enter any uppercase characters you want to exclude from the password. This field is case-sensitive.
- Allow Lowercase: Select to allow lowercase (small) letters. In the desktop client, click Advanced, as needed.
- Require a Minimum of Lowercase Characters: Enter a number to identify the least number of lowercase letters required. To allow but not require lowercase letters, set this value at zero.
- Limit Consecutively Repeated Lowercase Characters: If you allowed repeated characters earlier, select the check box to limit the number of consecutively repeated lowercase letters. You must enter a Maximum Allowed Characters value of one or more.
- Excluded these Lowercase Characters: Enter any lowercase characters you want to exclude from the password. This field is case sensitive.
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Limit Consecutively Repeated Alpha Characters: To set the number of repeated lowercase or uppercase letters combined, enter the Maximum Allowed Characters.
For example, if you set the Max Allowed at 2 then you can not have more than two alphabet characters next to each other in the password. Using this example, Ab1Cd2EF is valid but AbC1d2EF is not because it has three alphabet characters in a row.
- Allow Numeric Character (0-9): Select to allow numeric characters in the password. In the desktop client, click Advanced, as needed.
- Require a Minimum of Numeric Characters: Enter a number to identify the amount of numbers required in a password. To allow but not require numbers, set this value at zero.
- Limit Consecutively Repeated Numeric Characters: Select the check box to limit the number of consecutively repeated numeric characters. You must enter a Maximum Allowed Characters value of one or more.
- Exclude these Numeric Characters: Enter any numeric characters you want to exclude from the password. This field is case sensitive.
-
Allow Symbols (e.g. @ # $ % &): Select this check box to allow characters that are printable ASCII characters. These often include: ~ ` ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ - + = { } [ ] \ | : ; " ' < > , . ? /
In the desktop client, click Advanced, as needed.
- Require a Minimum of Symbols: Enter a number to identify the least number of symbols required. To allow but not require symbols, set this value at zero.
- Limit Consecutively Repeated Symbols: If you allowed repeated characters earlier, select the check box to limit the number of symbols that can repeat consecutively. You must enter a Maximum Allowed Characters value of one or more.
- Set the following:
- Valid Symbols: Select this option to enter allowable special characters. Enter the allowable symbols in the Symbol List text box.
- Invalid Symbols: Select this option to enter prohibited special characters. Enter the prohibited symbols in the Symbol List text box.
- Click Test Rule to check the rules set.
- When the rules are complete, click OK.
Change Password
desktop client only
Change password settings are the rules Safeguard for Privileged Passwords uses to reset account passwords.
Navigate to Administrative Tools | Settings | Password Management | Change Password.
The Change Password pane displays the following about the listed change password setting rules.
Table 171: Change Password: Properties
| Name |
The name of the rule. |
| Partition |
The partition that uses the rule. |
| Description |
Information about the rule. |
| Schedule |
Displays the selected rule's schedule. |
Use these toolbar buttons to manage the change password setting rules.
Adding change password settings
desktop client only
It is the responsibility of the Asset Administrator or the partition's delegated administrator to configure the rules Safeguard for Privileged Passwords uses to reset account passwords.
IMPORTANT: Passwords for accounts associated with a password sync group are managed based on the profile change schedule and processed via the sync group. If synchronization fails for an individual account in the sync group, the account is retried multiple times and, if failing after that, the sync task halts and is rescheduled. The administrator must correct the cause of the failure for the sync task to continue. For more information, see Password sync groups.
To add a password reset schedule
- Navigate to Administrative Tools | Settings | Password Management | Change Password.
- Click Add Change Password Setting to open the Change Password Settings dialog.
- Browse to select a partition.
- Enter a Name of up to 50 characters for the rule.
- Enter a Description of up to 255 characters for the rule.
-
Optionally, select any of the following:
- After Change Password, click the link or click the Schedule button.
-
In the Schedule dialog, select Run Every to run the job along per the run details you enter. (If you deselect Run Every, the schedule details are lost.)
-
Configure the following.
To specify the frequency without start and end times, select from the following controls. If you want to specify start and end times, go to the Use Time Window selection in this section.
Enter a frequency for Backup Every. Then, select a the time frame:
- Minutes: The job runs per the frequency of minutes you specify. For example, Every 30 Minutes runs the job every half hour over a 24-hour period. It is recommended you do not use the frequency of minutes except in unusual situations, such as testing.
-
Hours: The job runs per the minute setting you specify. For example, if it is 9 a.m. and you want to run the job every two hours at 15 minutes past the hour starting at 9:15 a.m., select Runs Every 2 Hours @ 15 minutes after the hour.
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Days: The job runs on the frequency of days and the time you enter.
For example, Every 2 Days Starting @ 11:59:00 PM runs the job every other evening just before midnight.
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Weeks The job runs per the frequency of weeks at the time and on the days you specify.
For example, Every 2 Weeks Starting @ 5:00:00 AM and Repeat on these days with MON, WED, FRI selected runs the job every other week at 5 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
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Months: The job runs on the frequency of months at the time and on the day you specify.
For example, If you select Every 2 Months Starting @ 1:00:00 AM along with First Saturday of the month, the job will run at 1 a.m. on the first Saturday of every other month.
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Select Use Time Windows if you want to enter the Start and End time. You can click Add or 
Remove to control multiple time restrictions. Each time window must be at least one minute apart and not overlap.
For example, for a job to run every ten minutes every day from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., enter these values:
Enter Every 10 Minutes and Use Time Windows:
If you have selected Days, Weeks, or Months, you will be able to select the number of times for the job to Repeat in the time window you enter.
For a job to run two times every other day at 10:30 am between the hours of 4 a.m. and 8 p.m., enter these values:
For days, enter Every 2 Days and set the Use Time Windows as Start 4:00:00 AM and End 20:00:00 PM and Repeat 2.
- (UTC) Coordinated Universal Time is the default time zone. Select a new time zone, if desired.
If the scheduler is unable to complete a task within the scheduled interval, when it finishes execution of the task, it is rescheduled for the next immediate interval.
- Optionally, complete any of these settings:
- Change the Password Even if a Release is Active: Select this option to allow a password change even when a password release is active.
- Require Current Password: Select this option to require a current password.
- Suspend account when checked in (supported platforms): Select this option to automatically suspend managed accounts that are not in use. That is, the account on a managed asset is suspended until a request is made for it through Safeguard for Privileged Passwords, at which time Safeguard for Privileged Passwords restores the account. Once the request is checked in or closed, the account is again suspended.
Click the supported platforms link to display a list of platforms that support this feature.
- Update Service on Password Change (Windows Only): For dependent accounts assigned to an asset that run system services, select this option to ensure that the password change is also applied to each service the account runs. The asset’s profile setting is used. This overrides the profile assigned to the account. If you have a local account, the profile assigned to the account overrides the profile assigned to the asset when updating dependent services on the same appliance.
- Restart Service on Password Change (Windows Only): For dependent accounts assigned to an asset that run system services, select this option to ensure that there is an automatic restart after the password is changed. The asset’s profile setting is used. This overrides the profile assigned to the account. If you have a local account, the profile assigned to the account overrides the profile assigned to the asset when updating dependent services on the same appliance.
- Update IIS App Pools on Password Change (Windows Only): For dependent accounts that run IIS App pools, select this option to ensure that the password change is also applied to each IIS App pool the account runs.
- Update COM+ on Password Change (Windows Only): For dependent accounts that run COM+ applications, select this option to ensure that the password change is also applied to each COM+ application the account runs.
- Update Task on Password Change (Windows Only): For dependent accounts that run scheduled system tasks, select this option to ensure that the password change is also applied to each task the account runs.
NOTE: When managing passwords for Windows service accounts, do not select this option. Create a separate Profile with Change Password settings that do not have this option selected for managing Windows service accounts.
- Details: Click to see Knowledge Base Article 312212 to learn which systems and platforms combinations are supported.
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