Required Characters Rule
The required characters rule ensures that passwords contain certain character categories.
Required characters are necessary to make a password stronger. For example, if you set the minimum number of uppercase characters to 4, then the password “ElePHant” will be rejected.
To configure the required characters rule
- Follow the steps outlined in Configuring Password Policy Rules.
- On the Policy Rules tab, click Required Characters Rule to expand the rule settings.
- Under Required Characters Rule, select the Password must contain at least check box, and then specify the following options as required:
Table 20: Required character rules
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Alphabetic characters |
Set the minimum number of alphabetic characters (A-z) that must appear in a password. |
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Lowercase characters |
Set the minimum number of lowercase characters that must appear in a password. |
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Uppercase characters |
Set the minimum number of uppercase characters that must appear in a password. |
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Unique characters |
Set the number of characters that must be unique within a password.
To require case sensitivity for this setting, select the Case sensitive check box. |
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Digits (0-9) |
Specify whether passwords must contain digits:
Set the minimum number of digits that must appear in a password by selecting the Minimum check box, and then typing the required number.
In the In positions text box, type the numbers of positions within a password where digits must appear. For example, 1,3,5-10.
Use Number of ending characters to specify how many digits must be in the end of a password. |
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Special characters |
Specify whether passwords must contain special characters:
Set the minimum number of special characters that must appear in a password by selecting the Minimum check box, and then typing the required number.
In the In positions text box, type the numbers of positions within a password where special characters must appear. For example, 1,3,5-10.
Use Number of ending characters to specify how many special characters there must be in the end of a password.
Special characters include the following characters
- !"#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\]^_`{}~ |
Disallowed Characters Rule
The disallowed characters rule rejects passwords that contain certain character categories.
The categories include digits from 0-9 and special characters such as “#$%”. If you specify that special characters must not appear in the beginning of a password, then the password “@work” will be rejected.
To configure the disallowed characters rule
- Follow the steps outlined in Configuring Password Policy Rules.
- On the Policy Rules tab, click Disallowed Characters Rule to expand the rule settings.
- Under Disallowed Characters Rule, select the Password must not contain check box, and then specify the following options as required:
Table 21: Disallowed character rule
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Digits (0-9) |
Specify whether the rule will reject passwords containing digits.
Select the In positions check box, and then type the numbers of positions within a password where digits must not appear. For example, 1,3,5-10.
Select the Number of ending characters check box, and then specify how many digits there must not be in the end of a password. |
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Special characters |
Specify whether the rule will reject passwords containing special characters.
Select the In positions check box, and then type the numbers of positions within a password where special characters must not appear. For example, 1,3,5-10.
Select the Number of ending characters check box, and then specify how many special characters there must not be in the end of a password.
Special characters include the following characters
- !"#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\]^_`{}~ |
Sequence Rule
The sequence rule rejects passwords that contain more repeated characters than it is allowed.
Repeated characters can appear in succession or in different positions in a password. This policy also includes characters typed in direct or inverse numerical or alphabetical order. For example, if you set the maximum number of same characters that appear in succession to three, then the password “eeeegle” will be rejected.
To configure the sequence rule
- Follow the steps outlined in Configuring Password Policy Rules.
- On the Policy Rules tab, click Sequence Rule to expand the rule settings.
- Under Sequence Rule, select the Password must not contain more than check box, and then specify the following options:
Table 22: Password sequence rule
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Number of characters repeated in succession (AAAB) |
Set the maximum number of same characters in a row that the policy will tolerate before rejecting a password. |
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Number of identical characters (ABCA) |
Set the maximum number of same characters typed in different positions of password that the policy will tolerate before rejecting a password. |
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Number of characters in direct or inverse numerical or alphabetical order (ABC_321) |
Set the maximum number of characters typed in direct or inverse numerical or alphabetical order that the policy will tolerate before rejecting a password. |
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Case sensitive |
Select this check box to require case sensitivity for this rule. |
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 23: 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. |
