Microsoft: Forced password changes don’t work

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Yesterday, Sergiu Gatlan at BleepingComputer wrote about Microsoft’s newfound antipathy to forced frequent password changes. You know the problem: Eve
[See the full post at: Microsoft: Forced password changes don’t work]

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abbodi86, PhotM

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woody wrote:

Forcing you to change them every 30 days only pushes you toward less secure passwords

Yes, that’s been known in security circles for a long time—in corporate IT depts, not so much 🙁

Has MS been making us change passwords, or are you just applauding them for supporting the cause? I use Windows, Outlook.com & Office 365, and can’t remember being asked to change my password.

Even my online financial outfits seem to have learned, they no longer demand 90-day resets either.

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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As part of the security baseline, the password changes were not enforced, but they were a sticking point for lots of enterprises that had to conform to a checklist of Microsoft recommended security guidelines.

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Has MS been making us change passwords, or are you just applauding them for supporting the cause? I use Windows, Outlook.com & Office 365, and can’t remember being asked to change my password.

Yes, Windows 10 by default expires passwords.

How to Enable or Disable Password Expiration for Local Accounts in Windows 10

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/87379-enable-disable-password-expiration-local-accounts-windows-10-a.html  

-- rc primak

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rc primak wrote:

Has MS been making us change passwords, or are you just applauding them for supporting the cause? I use Windows, Outlook.com & Office 365, and can’t remember being asked to change my password.

Yes, Windows 10 by default expires passwords.

How to Enable or Disable Password Expiration for Local Accounts in Windows 10

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/87379-enable-disable-password-expiration-local-accounts-windows-10-a.html

That’s not true.

The Windows default is 42 days, only if password expiration is explicitly set.

See Option One, Step 6 and Option Two, Step 4 at that TenForums link which both say “Note: This is the default setting” under “To Disable Password Protection for Local Account(s)”.

But password expiration IS the default for Active Directory in business environments:
“By default, domain users are required to change their passwords every 42 days, as defined by domain password policy.”
https://www.top-password.com/blog/set-password-to-never-expire-for-domain-accounts-in-windows-server/

Although 30 to 90 days has been recommended for Active Directory until now:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2008-R2-and-2008/hh994573%28v%3dws.10%29

And Azure Active Directory currently has a default of 90 days:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/40140.office-365-password-policy.aspx

So Microsoft’s very recent “Dropping the password expiration policies” is aimed at businesses, not consumers.

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cmptrgy, rc primak, Lugh

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Always thought that was a stupid requirement. Can’t tell you how many machines I get in here with sticky notes with their login info, exchange login etc.

They all complain because while they had a good password initially the constant changing confused them.

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wavy, rc primak, woody

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It’s not like you can’t go to any number of online password generators and get a billion good, long, strong passwords. But humans can’t remember these passwords, so frequent changes are counterproductive. They always end up in plain-text files in My Documents or sticky notes attached to the computer.

The best answer so far has been to use a USB Key as the “passkey”. (You can create such keys without relying on commercial interests.) Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are among many large site operators which allow some sort of USB Key to be used in place of a password now, and the trend is growing. Just don’t lose that USB Key! (There are Account Recovery options, but these are a real pain to go through.)

-- rc primak

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wavy

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The change is probably in response to the NIST change.
https://www.enzoic.com/surprising-new-password-guidelines-nist/

cheers, Paul

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Microsoft also increased the minimum storage requirement for 1903 from 16GB to 32GB for both 32 & 64 bit OS.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/minimum-hardware-requirements-overview#331-storage-device-size

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If you’re going by unassisted password solutions, then having a unique LongBu7EasyToRemember! password is better than Short ones changing every 3 months.  Yearly change is about right.  When it comes to assisted password solutions, then having short life passwords are neutral to good.

Eg: if you have 2 Factor Authentication, frequent password changes are neutral; there’s tradeoffs and a case could be made (I wouldn’t though).  Password managers with 32 character randomly generated passwords are secure.  Keep 3-4 long and easy to remember passwords on hand for what’s critical: Password manager, primary email, desktop system, possibly financials.  Change them every once in a while just in case, and do not reuse.  And keep these out of the password manager.

The former option works well if you don’t need many passwords.  Problem is that the amount of sites we have that use passwords continuously grows.  I’ve got at least 40 passwords and those that aren’t in a password manager are one of about 10 of the LongBu7EasyToRemember! types.  Then I got pwned and about a dozen of my accounts became exposed (no big deal, the password they got was for tertiary stuff).  There’s probably sites I’m on that I’ve forgotten, are pre-Password Manager, and will be used maliciously in the future.

That doesn’t discount the fact that my mother gets flustered trying to remember 3 passwords… So unassisted password solutions are quickly become obsolete.  “Sufficiently complex” passwords are only secure as long as they’re not exposed.

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anonymous wrote:

Keep 3-4 long and easy to remember passwords on hand for what’s critical: Password manager, primary email, desktop system, possibly financials.  Change them every once in a while just in case, and do not reuse.  And keep these out of the password manager

Or, use one long and complex password for your password manager and save everything else in it. As long as you have access to a backup of your password manager you don’t need to remember other passwords.

cheers, Paul

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And hope your password manager’s database doesn’t get hacked.

Easier to avoid when you control the database than if it lives in the Cloud or in (gasp!) your web browser.

-- rc primak

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wavy

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What sort of password manager has a hackable database? Oh, yes, those online ones that keep reporting they’ve been hacked.
I use a local password manager but use the cloud for backup.

cheers, Paul

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rc primak

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