User Properties Rule
The user properties rule rejects passwords that contain part of a user account property value.
This rule splits the user account property value by non-alphanumeric characters (for example, “_”), and then checks if any part of the value is available in the password. For example, if user’s name is “Peter_US”, Password Manager splits the property into: “Peter” and “US”, and checks if any part can be found in the password. For example, the password “US_US” will be rejected.
To configure the user properties rule
- Follow the steps outlined in Configuring Password Policy Rules.
- On the Policy Rules tab, click User Properties Rule to expand the rule settings.
- Under User Properties Rule, select the Prevent users from using account properties as part of passwords check box, and then specify the following options:
Table 21: User properties rule
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Beginning characters of a user property value |
Set the maximum number of beginning characters from a user property value that users are allowed to use as part of their passwords.
For example, if a user's full name is “Anna Fairweather”, and the option value is set to 3, then the user is allowed to type the strings “Ann” and “Fai” as part of her password. The password will be rejected if it contains “Anna” or “Fair”.
You can select from the following user account properties:
- displayNamePrintable
- mailNickname
- userPrincipalName
- displayName
- title
- sn
- samAccountName
- personalTitle
- middleName
- mail
- givenName
- employeeID
- cn
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NOTE: The administrator can add other user attributes to the existing list of attributes and select to use. Click Add other attribute to the list to add other user attributes. | |
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The entire value of a user property |
Select to reject passwords containing the entire value of a user property.
You can select any of the user account properties listed in the description of the Beginning characters of a user property value option above. |
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Case sensitive |
Select this check box to require case sensitivity for this rule. |
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Enable bi-directional analysis |
Select to reject passwords containing the entire value of a user property or its part (depending on which of the two previous options you have selected), if read backwards. |
Dictionary Rule
The dictionary rule rejects passwords that match dictionary words or their parts.
The dictionary rule compares user passwords against a list of words stored in the QPMDictionary.txt text file (this file must use UTF-8 encoding). Depending on how you configure the rule settings, user passwords that partially or fully match dictionary words are rejected by Password Manager.
The QPMDictionary.txt (dictionary file) is located in the following folder: '\\<Domain Controller>\SYSVOL\<Domain>\31EB75A4-CD1A-4F67-94DA-9F8F5DF1F5C1', is deployed when user installs Password Policy Manager (PPM).
The dictionary file is never cached. During each password validity check, the dictionary file is read from the Password Manager server, or from the user's domain controller.
On the Policy Rules tab, click Dictionary Rule to expand the rule settings. Click Edit Dictionary File to edit or add new words to dictionary. After editing the file, click Save to save the changes. When user edits the dictionary file, the changes are saved in QPMDictionary.txt file which is in SYSVOL folder in Domain Controller. Service accounts must have access to this file from machines, where Password Manager is installed. When modifying the dictionary file, ensure that you begin every new word on a new line. It is recommended to maintain alphabetical order.
The dictionary rule is not case-sensitive which means that, on the one side, you can use either uppercase or lowercase when adding or modifying dictionary entries; and, on the other side, user input will undergo validity check irrespective of whether users use capitals or small letters in their passwords.
- To configure the dictionary rule
- Follow the steps outlined in Configuring Password Policy Rules.
- On the Policy Rules tab, click Dictionary Rule to expand the rule settings.
- Under Dictionary Rule, select the Enable dictionary lookup to reject passwords that contain check box. This enables administrators to control a set of rules using the Dictionary Rule feature. These rules can be modified as follows:
Table 22: Dictionary rule
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Beginning characters of a dictionary word |
Specify number of characters in the password to match with the beginning of a word in dictionary before rejecting it. The characters in the password must be more than the specified number, for this option to work efficiently. |
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A complete word from the dictionary (QPMDictionary.txt) |
Select this check box to reject passwords that represent an entire word stored in the dictionary. |
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Detect inclusion of non-alpha characters (pas7swo%rd) |
Select this check box to remove non-alphabetic characters during analysis. |
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Enable bi-directional analysis |
Select to reject passwords containing an entire dictionary word or its part (depending on which of the other three options you have selected), if read backwards. |
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NOTE: Password Policy Manager installation is not necessary, if Password Manager is installed on Domain Controller, and user wants to enable only dictionary rule. |
Symmetry Rule
The symmetry rule ensures that password or its part does not read the same in both directions.
For example, if you enable the Reject passwords that read the same in both directions option, then the password “redivider” will be rejected.
To configure the symmetry rule
- Follow the steps outlined in Configuring Password Policy Rules.
- On the Policy Rules tab, click Symmetry Rule to expand the rule settings.
- Under Symmetry Rule, select the Password must comply with symmetry criteria check box, and then specify the following options:
Table 23: Symmetry criteria
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Reject passwords that read the same in both directions (pass8ssap) |
Select to reject passwords that are palindromes. |
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Maximum number of beginning characters that match ending characters of password if read backwards (pas47sap) |
Specify the number of beginning characters matching the ending characters of password, if read backwards, which the policy will tolerate before rejecting a password. |
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Maximum number of consecutive characters within a password, that read the same in both directions (pass4554word) |
Specify the number of password characters in a row that read the same in both directions, which the policy will tolerate before rejecting a password. |
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Case sensitive |
Select to define this rule as case sensitive. |
You can use this rule to create your own password policy message to be displayed on the Self-Service site when users change or reset their passwords. For example, if you want to hide all other policy messages and display your custom message to users, enable this policy rule, enter the message text, and select the Hide messages from other policy rules and display only this message check box. If you do not select this check box, messages from all enabled policy rules will be displayed.
Note, that this rule does not check the password compliance with the configured password policy. Configure this rule to display your custom message instead of or together with other policy messages when users change or reset passwords on the Self-Service site.
- To configure the custom rule
- Follow the steps outlined in Configuring Password Policy Rules.
- On the Policy Rules tab, click Custom Rule to expand the rule settings.
- Under Custom Rule, select the Enable check box to enable this rule.
- Select the Hide messages from other policy rules and display only this message check box if you want users to see only the custom password rule message and hide all other password policy messages.
- In the text box, enter the rule message in the default language (English). To enter the message in other languages, click the Add new language link, select the language, specify the message and click OK. Note, that only languages of the user interface of the Self-Service site are available in the list.
