Comparison of Password Complexity Rules : Active Directory, password policy, special characters

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Comparison of Password Complexity Rules

Asked by MonogramIT in Windows Network Security, Windows 2003 Server

Tags: Active Directory, password policy, special characters

I have an auditor who is busting my chops over my implementation of the Windows strong password policy (formerly passfilt.dll). The regulation in question states that the password must contain at least one alpha, one number, and one special character. Windows (strong), of course, divides the characters up into upper, lower, number, and special (we are ignoring unicode for this exercise) and makes you pick 3. He sticks on the fact that you could create a password without a special character, so it doesn't match the policy. My take is that since I provide more potential passwords in the space, my policy is more secure against brute force, and hence, more prescriptive and not a violation (this is allowable in the regulation in question if I can get the auditor to agree with my analysis on the security level).

Anyone ever seen anything to bolster my case, preferably something peer-reviewed?

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Comparison of Password Complexity Rules

Asked by MonogramIT in Windows Network Security, Windows 2003 Server

Tags: Active Directory, password policy, special characters

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