Directory Services 7.3.5

Password Policy

Password Policies define a number of password management rules, as well as requirements for authentication processing.

Parent

The Password Policy object inherits from Authentication Policy.

Dependencies

Password Policy properties

You can use configuration expressions to set property values at startup time. For details, see Property value substitution.

Basic Properties Advanced Properties

account-status-notification-handler
allow-expired-password-changes
allow-user-password-changes
default-password-storage-scheme
deprecated-password-storage-scheme
expire-passwords-without-warning
force-change-on-add
force-change-on-reset
grace-login-count
idle-lockout-interval
last-login-time-attribute
last-login-time-format
lockout-duration
lockout-failure-count
lockout-failure-expiration-interval
max-password-age
max-password-reset-age
min-password-age
password-attribute
password-change-requires-current-password
password-expiration-warning-interval
password-generator
password-history-count
password-history-duration
password-validator
previous-last-login-time-format
require-change-by-time
require-secure-authentication
require-secure-password-changes

allow-multiple-password-values
allow-pre-encoded-passwords
java-class
skip-validation-for-administrators
state-update-failure-policy

Basic properties

Use the --advanced option to access advanced properties.

account-status-notification-handler

Synopsis

Specifies the names of the account status notification handlers that are used with the associated password storage scheme.

Default value

None

Allowed values

The name of an existing account-status-notification-handler.

The referenced account status notification handlers must be enabled.

Multi-valued

Yes

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

allow-expired-password-changes

Synopsis

Indicates whether a user whose password is expired is still allowed to change that password using the password modify extended operation.

Default value

false

Allowed values

true

false

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

allow-user-password-changes

Synopsis

Indicates whether users can change their own passwords.

Description

This check is made in addition to access control evaluation. Both must allow the password change for it to occur.

Default value

true

Allowed values

true

false

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

default-password-storage-scheme

Synopsis

Specifies the names of the password storage schemes that are used to encode clear-text passwords for this password policy.

Default value

None

Allowed values

The name of an existing password-storage-scheme.

The referenced password storage schemes must be enabled.

Multi-valued

Yes

Required

Yes

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

deprecated-password-storage-scheme

Synopsis

Specifies the names of the password storage schemes that are considered deprecated for this password policy.

Description

If a user with this password policy authenticates to the server and his/her password is encoded with a deprecated scheme, those values are removed and replaced with values encoded using the default password storage scheme(s).

Default value

None

Allowed values

The name of an existing password-storage-scheme.

The referenced password storage schemes must be enabled.

Multi-valued

Yes

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

expire-passwords-without-warning

Synopsis

Indicates whether the directory server allows a user’s password to expire even if that user has never seen an expiration warning notification.

Description

If this property is true, accounts always expire when the expiration time arrives. If this property is false or disabled, the user always receives at least one warning notification, and the password expiration is set to the warning time plus the warning interval.

Default value

false

Allowed values

true

false

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

force-change-on-add

Synopsis

Indicates whether users are forced to change their passwords upon first authenticating to the directory server after their account has been created.

Description

Use the max-password-reset-age property to control how long users have to change their passwords.

Default value

false

Allowed values

true

false

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

force-change-on-reset

Synopsis

Indicates whether users are forced to change their passwords if they are reset by an administrator.

Description

For this purpose, anyone with permission to change a given user’s password other than that user is considered an administrator. Use the max-password-reset-age property to control how long users have to change their passwords.

Default value

false

Allowed values

true

false

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

grace-login-count

Synopsis

Specifies the number of grace logins that a user is allowed after the account has expired to allow that user to choose a new password.

Description

A value of 0 indicates that no grace logins are allowed.

Default value

0

Allowed values

An integer.

Lower limit: 0.

Upper limit: 2147483647.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

idle-lockout-interval

Synopsis

Specifies the maximum length of time that an account may remain idle (that is, the associated user does not authenticate to the server) before that user is locked out.

Description

The value of this attribute is an integer followed by a unit of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, or years. A value of 0 seconds indicates that idle accounts are not automatically locked out. This feature is available only if the last login time is maintained.

Default value

0 seconds

Allowed values

Lower limit: 0 seconds.

Upper limit: 2147483647 seconds.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

last-login-time-attribute

Synopsis

Specifies the name or OID of the attribute type that is used to hold the last login time for users with the associated password policy.

Description

This attribute type must be defined in the directory server schema and must either be defined as an operational attribute or must be allowed by the set of objectClasses for all users with the associated password policy.

Default value

None

Allowed values

The name of an attribute type defined in the LDAP schema.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

last-login-time-format

Synopsis

Specifies the format string that is used to generate the last login time value for users with the associated password policy.

Description

This format string conforms to the syntax described in the API documentation for the java.text.SimpleDateFormat class.

Default value

None

Allowed values

Any valid format string that can be used with the java.text.SimpleDateFormat class.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

lockout-duration

Synopsis

Specifies the length of time that an account is locked after too many authentication failures.

Description

The value of this attribute is an integer followed by a unit of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, or years. A value of 0 seconds indicates that the account must remain locked until an administrator resets the password.

Default value

0 seconds

Allowed values

Lower limit: 0 seconds.

Upper limit: 2147483647 seconds.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

lockout-failure-count

Synopsis

Specifies the maximum number of authentication failures that a user is allowed before the account is locked out.

Description

A value of 0 indicates that accounts are never locked out due to failed attempts.

Default value

0

Allowed values

An integer.

Lower limit: 0.

Upper limit: 2147483647.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

lockout-failure-expiration-interval

Synopsis

Specifies the length of time before an authentication failure is no longer counted against a user for the purposes of account lockout.

Description

The value of this attribute is an integer followed by a unit of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, or years. A value of 0 seconds indicates that the authentication failures must never expire. The failure count is always cleared upon a successful authentication.

Default value

0 seconds

Allowed values

Lower limit: 0 seconds.

Upper limit: 2147483647 seconds.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

max-password-age

Synopsis

Specifies the maximum length of time that a user can continue using the same password before it must be changed (that is, the password expiration interval).

Description

The value of this attribute is an integer followed by a unit of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, or years. A value of 0 seconds disables password expiration.

Default value

0 seconds

Allowed values

Lower limit: 0 seconds.

Upper limit: 2147483647 seconds.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

max-password-reset-age

Synopsis

Specifies the maximum length of time that users have to change passwords after they have been reset by an administrator before they become locked.

Description

The value of this attribute is an integer followed by a unit of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, or years. A value of 0 seconds disables this feature. Users are only required to change their password after it is reset if force-change-on-add or force-change-on-reset is true.

Default value

0 seconds

Allowed values

Lower limit: 0 seconds.

Upper limit: 2147483647 seconds.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

min-password-age

Synopsis

Specifies the minimum length of time after a password change before the user is allowed to change the password again.

Description

The value of this attribute is an integer followed by a unit of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, or years. This setting can be used to prevent users from changing their passwords repeatedly over a short period of time to flush an old password from the history so that it can be re-used.

Default value

0 seconds

Allowed values

Lower limit: 0 seconds.

Upper limit: 2147483647 seconds.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

password-attribute

Synopsis

Specifies the attribute type used to hold user passwords.

Description

This attribute type must be defined in the server schema, and it must have either the user password or auth password syntax.

Default value

None

Allowed values

The name of an attribute type defined in the LDAP schema.

Multi-valued

No

Required

Yes

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

password-change-requires-current-password

Synopsis

Indicates whether user password changes must include the user’s current password before the change is allowed. This can be done with either the password modify extended operation, or a modify operation using delete and add.

Default value

false

Allowed values

true

false

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

password-expiration-warning-interval

Synopsis

Specifies the maximum length of time before a user’s password actually expires that the server begins to include warning notifications in bind responses for that user.

Description

The value of this attribute is an integer followed by a unit of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, or years. A value of 0 seconds disables the warning interval.

Default value

5 days

Allowed values

Lower limit: 0 seconds.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

password-generator

Synopsis

Specifies the name of the password generator that is used with the associated password policy.

Description

This is used in conjunction with the password modify extended operation to generate a new password for a user when none was provided in the request.

Default value

None

Allowed values

The name of an existing password-generator.

The referenced password generator must be enabled.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

password-history-count

Synopsis

Specifies the maximum number of former passwords to maintain in the password history.

Description

When choosing a new password, the proposed password is checked to ensure that it does not match the current password, nor any other password in the history list. A value of zero indicates that either no password history is to be maintained (if the password history duration has a value of zero seconds), or that there is no maximum number of passwords to maintain in the history (if the password history duration has a value greater than zero seconds).

Default value

0

Allowed values

An integer.

Lower limit: 0.

Upper limit: 2147483647.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

password-history-duration

Synopsis

Specifies the maximum length of time that passwords remain in the password history.

Description

When choosing a new password, the proposed password is checked to ensure that it does not match the current password, nor any other password in the history list. A value of zero seconds indicates that either no password history is to be maintained (if the password history count has a value of zero), or that there is no maximum duration for passwords in the history (if the password history count has a value greater than zero).

Default value

0 seconds

Allowed values

Lower limit: 0 seconds.

Upper limit: 2147483647 seconds.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

password-validator

Synopsis

Specifies the names of the password validators that are used with the associated password storage scheme.

Description

The password validators are invoked when a user attempts to provide a new password, to determine whether the new password is acceptable.

Default value

None

Allowed values

The name of an existing password-validator.

The referenced password validators must be enabled.

Multi-valued

Yes

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

previous-last-login-time-format

Synopsis

Specifies the format string(s) that might have been used with the last login time at any point in the past for users associated with the password policy.

Description

These values are used to make it possible to parse previous values, but are not used to set new values. The format strings conform to the syntax described in the API documentation for the java.text.SimpleDateFormat class.

Default value

None

Allowed values

Any valid format string that can be used with the java.text.SimpleDateFormat class.

Multi-valued

Yes

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

require-change-by-time

Synopsis

Specifies the time by which all users with the associated password policy must change their passwords.

Description

The value is expressed in a generalized time format. If this time is equal to the current time or is in the past, then all users are required to change their passwords immediately. The behavior of the server in this mode is identical to the behavior observed when users are forced to change their passwords after an administrative reset.

Default value

None

Allowed values

A valid timestamp in generalized time form (for example, a value of "20070409185811Z" indicates a value of April 9, 2007 at 6:58:11 pm GMT).

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

require-secure-authentication

Synopsis

Indicates whether users with the associated password policy are required to authenticate in a secure manner.

Description

This might mean either using a secure communication channel between the client and the server, or using a SASL mechanism that does not expose the credentials.

Default value

false

Allowed values

true

false

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

require-secure-password-changes

Synopsis

Indicates whether users with the associated password policy are required to change their password in a secure manner that does not expose the credentials.

Default value

false

Allowed values

true

false

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

No

Read-only

No

Advanced properties

Use the --advanced option to access advanced properties.

allow-multiple-password-values

Synopsis

Indicates whether user entries can have multiple distinct values for the password attribute.

Description

This is potentially dangerous because many mechanisms used to change the password do not work well with such a configuration. If multiple password values are allowed, then any of them can be used to authenticate, and they are all subject to the same policy constraints.

Default value

false

Allowed values

true

false

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

Yes

Read-only

No

allow-pre-encoded-passwords

Synopsis

Indicates whether users can change their passwords by providing a pre-encoded value.

Description

This can cause a security risk because the clear-text version of the password is not known and therefore validation checks cannot be applied to it.

Default value

false

Allowed values

true

false

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

Yes

Read-only

No

java-class

Synopsis

Specifies the fully-qualified name of the Java class which provides the Password Policy implementation.

Default value

org.opends.server.core.PasswordPolicyFactory

Allowed values

A Java class that extends or implements:

  • org.opends.server.api.AuthenticationPolicyFactory

Multi-valued

No

Required

Yes

Admin action required

The object must be disabled and re-enabled for changes to take effect.

Advanced

Yes

Read-only

No

skip-validation-for-administrators

Synopsis

Indicates whether passwords set by administrators are allowed to bypass the password validation process that is required for user password changes.

Default value

false

Allowed values

true

false

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

Yes

Read-only

No

state-update-failure-policy

Synopsis

Specifies how the server deals with the inability to update password policy state information during an authentication attempt.

Description

In particular, this property can be used to control whether an otherwise successful bind operation fails if a failure occurs while attempting to update password policy state information (for example, to clear a record of previous authentication failures or to update the last login time). It can also be used to control whether to reject a bind request if it is known ahead of time that it will not be possible to update the authentication failure times in the event of an unsuccessful bind attempt (for example, if the backend writability mode is disabled).

Default value

reactive

Allowed values

  • ignore: If a bind attempt would otherwise be successful, then do not reject it if a problem occurs while attempting to update the password policy state information for the user.

  • proactive: Proactively reject any bind attempt if it is known ahead of time that it would not be possible to update the user’s password policy state information.

  • reactive: Even if a bind attempt would otherwise be successful, reject it if a problem occurs while attempting to update the password policy state information for the user.

Multi-valued

No

Required

No

Admin action required

None

Advanced

Yes

Read-only

No