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1.1.3 Ensure 'Minimum password age' is set to '1 or more day(s)'

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Information

This policy setting determines the number of days that you must use a password before you can change it. The range of values for this policy setting is between 1 and 999 days. (You may also set the value to 0 to allow immediate password changes.) The default value for this setting is 0 days.

The recommended state for this setting is: 1 or more day(s).

Note: Password Policy settings (section 1.1) and Account Lockout Policy settings (section 1.2) must be applied via the Default Domain Policy GPO in order to be globally in effect on domain user accounts as their default behavior. If these settings are configured in another GPO, they will only affect local user accounts on the computers that receive the GPO. However, custom exceptions to the default password policy and account lockout policy rules for specific domain users and/or groups can be defined using Password Settings Objects (PSOs), which are completely separate from Group Policy and most easily configured using Active Directory Administrative Center.

Users may have favorite passwords that they like to use because they are easy to remember Unfortunately, passwords are compromised and if a threat actor is targeting a specific individual's user account, with foreknowledge of data about that user, reuse of old passwords can cause a security breach. To address password reuse, a combination of security settings is required.

Using this policy setting with the Enforce password history setting prevents the easy reuse of old passwords. For example, if you configure the Enforce password history setting to ensure that users cannot reuse any of their last 12 passwords, they could change their password 13 times in a few minutes and reuse the password they started with, unless you also configure the Minimum password age setting to a number that is greater than 0. You must configure this policy setting to a number that is greater than 0 for the Enforce password history setting to be effective.

Solution

To establish the recommended configuration via GP, set the following UI path to 1 or more day(s) :

Computer Configuration\Policies\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Account Policies\Password Policy\Minimum password age

Impact:

If an administrator sets a password for a user but wants that user to change the password when the user first logs on, the administrator must select the User must change password at next logon check box, or the user will not be able to change the password until the next day.

In environments where access is limited to Remote Desktop Services, users cannot change their password prior to logging in. They must be assigned a temporary password, and once it is set by the administrator, the user will not be able to change it until the following day.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/25733

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1), CSCv7|16.10

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: 7eaf14aa26309149bbced6366b357488522d413e2d75950d66d559bfd2f070f8