Administration

Password Policy File

Password Policy File

This file controls password rules such as password length, number of character types, and the lifetime of a password. The file, password.policy, is located on each of the primary and secondary security servers. This file can be located at:

/opt/krb5

Editing the Default File

To edit the password policy file and configure it to match your organization’s requirements, use a text editor on the primary security server. You must have the appropriate read-writepermissions to access the password policy file.

The default password policy file is designed around the four instances or policy groups namely,

 

• principals who do not have an instance

 

 

• principals with an admin instance

 

 

• principals with a root instance

 

 

• the base group named * that consists of all the other principals

 

You can also add more policy groups to identify specific instances in your

 

enterprise.

 

 

Password policy settings and the defaults for the base group, the *

 

instance group, in the password policy file are listed below:

Table 6-2

Default Password Policy Settings for the base group

 

 

 

 

Password Policy setting

Default

 

 

 

 

* .MaxRepeatChars

3

 

 

 

 

* .MaxRepeatClasses

4

 

 

 

 

*.MaximumMatch

4

 

 

 

 

*.MinimumLength

6

 

 

 

 

*.MinimumClasses

2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 6

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