Configuring the Password Policy

1.1.3.Configuring a Global Password Policy Using the Command-Line

To set up the password policy for a subtree or user, add the required entries and attributes at the subtree or user level, set the appropriate values to the password policy attributes, and enable fine-grained password policy checking.

This section describes the attributes to create a password policy for the entire server (globally) using ldapmodify to change these attributes in the cn=config entry.

Table 7.1, “Password Policy Attributes” describes the attributes available to configure the password policy.

Attribute Name

Definition

 

 

passwordGraceLimit

This attribute indicates the number of grace

 

logins permitted when a user's password is

 

expired. When set to a positive number, the

 

user will be allowed to bind with the expired

 

password for that many times. For the global

 

password policy, the attribute is defined under

 

cn=config. By default, this attribute is set to

 

0, which means grace logins are not

 

permitted.

 

 

passwordMustChange

When on, this attribute requires users to

 

change their passwords when they first login

 

to the directory or after the password is reset

 

by the Directory Manager. The user is

 

required to change their password even if

 

user-defined passwords are disabled. If this

 

attribute is set to off, passwords assigned by

 

the Directory Manager should not follow any

 

obvious convention and should be difficult to

 

discover. This attribute is off by default.

 

 

passwordChange

When on, this attribute indicates that users

 

may change their own password. Allowing

 

users to set their own passwords runs the risk

 

of users choosing passwords that are easy to

 

remember. However, setting good passwords

 

for the user requires a significant

 

administrative effort. In addition, providing

 

passwords to users that are not meaningful to

 

them runs the risk that users will write the

 

password down somewhere that can be

 

discovered. This attribute is on by default.

 

 

passwordExp

When on, this attribute indicates that the

 

 

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HP UX Red Hat Direry Server Software manual Configuring a Global Password Policy Using the Command-Line