How can I find out the password complexity policy?

A user tries to change his/her password in a Windows domain and it's not accepted:

The password supplied does not meet the minimum complexity requirements

How can an end-user find out what the requirements are? (The obvious solution would be to contact IT but let's say it's not possible)

Siim K

Posted 2011-12-06T15:19:09.540

Reputation: 6 776

8Not always so theoretical, having been trying to help an end user with this exact problem when the sysadmin was on vacation... It's a pretty big design flaw that Windows doesn't tell the user what the complexity requirements are during the password change process. – Brian Knoblauch – 2014-08-28T15:01:35.730

If there is an AD in place, who manages it and why can't they be contacted? – Dave M – 2011-12-06T15:23:20.463

2@Dave: it's a theoretical question :) I'm just curious if it can be done – Siim K – 2011-12-06T15:26:39.743

Answers

Every AD user can see the value of the attribute named "pwdProperties", your id probably set to "DOMAIN_PASSWORD_COMPLEX" (value "1", integer).

AdFind can be used to retrieve many attributes relative to passwords:

AdFind.exe -default -s base lockoutduration lockoutthreshold lockoutobservationwindow maxpwdage minpwdage minpwdlength pwdhistorylength pwdproperties

Here is an example of what you'll get:

AdFind V01.45.00cpp Joe Richards (joe@joeware.net) March 2011

Using server: domain.example.org:389 Directory: Windows Server 2008 R2 Base DN: DC=domain,DC=example,DC=org

dn:DC=domain,DC=example,DC=org

lockoutDuration: -18000000000
lockOutObservationWindow: -18000000000
lockoutThreshold: 0
maxPwdAge: -344736000000000
minPwdAge: 0
minPwdLength: 7
pwdProperties: 1
pwdHistoryLength: 2

1 Objects returned

Shadok

Posted 2011-12-06T15:19:09.540

Reputation: 3 760

Information about the complexity requirements can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc786468(v=ws.10).aspx

– kroimon – 2014-09-13T14:55:06.503

Not sure this would be very useful if the domain is using a custom password filter. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms721882.aspx

– Zoredache – 2016-03-15T23:16:24.503

For a solution without 3rd party tools, see below!

– Qw3ry – 2019-08-19T11:18:23.493

This Windows built-in command (use the Command Prompt : cmd.exe) prints the same details as the tool in answer:

net accounts

Example output:

C:\>net accounts
Force user logoff how long after time expires?:       Never
Minimum password age (days):                          0
Maximum password age (days):                          42
Minimum password length:                              0
Length of password history maintained:                None
Lockout threshold:                                    Never
Lockout duration (minutes):                           30
Lockout observation window (minutes):                 30
Computer role:                                        WORKSTATION
The command completed successfully.

Credits/source: http://windowsitpro.com/security/discovering-details-about-domains-password-policy

David Balažic

Posted 2011-12-06T15:19:09.540

Reputation: 1 242

You the real MVP. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490698.aspx

– HackSlash – 2018-01-25T22:58:05.817

7You should add that "/domain" is required in an AD controlled environment: "net accounts /domain" – HackSlash – 2018-01-25T23:00:10.260

@HackSlash What do you mean? My workstation is a member of a domain and the plain net accounts command prints all of the above information without problems. – David Balažic – 2019-04-12T14:19:47.347

When you use the /domain you see this message: The request will be processed at a domain controller for domain – HackSlash – 2019-04-15T15:22:55.113

Since it is AD, currently there is only a single complexity (per se) pattern available: the so-called 3 of 4 pattern. It is either on or off, unless you use a third party tool like Spec Ops to enforce some other level of complexity. Three of Four means your password needs to include at least one character from three of the 4 possible character sets:

UPPER CASE
lower case
Numeric (0-9)
Comic book curse words (aka special characters: !@#$%^&*(*))_+ etc)

geoffc

Posted 2011-12-06T15:19:09.540

Reputation: 1 113

1What version of windows are you talking about? There are six configurable parameters in the default Password Policy provided by AD. – HackSlash – 2018-01-25T22:57:34.067

Space is also considered a special character. – brianary – 2018-05-21T21:03:12.987

Run in PowerShell:

Get-ADDefaultDomainPasswordPolicy -Current LoggedOnUser

Output:

ComplexityEnabled           : True
DistinguishedName           : DC=ad,DC=company,DC=net
LockoutDuration             : 00:30:00
LockoutObservationWindow    : 00:30:00
LockoutThreshold            : 12
MaxPasswordAge              : 180.00:00:00
MinPasswordAge              : 1.00:00:00
MinPasswordLength           : 8
objectClass                 : {domainDNS}
objectGuid                  : 641734ff-9d4c-40b4-a28a-b9628c021639
PasswordHistoryCount        : 24
ReversibleEncryptionEnabled : False

Feriman

Posted 2011-12-06T15:19:09.540

Reputation: 1

-4

I don't believe, short of brute force attempts, that there's any way programmatically to do this unless you're already an admin. So, you'll have to call IT. (The defaults vary depending on what they've got set up, although if you know that I guess you could look up the defaults and try. No guarantee that they haven't changed it, of course.)

Shinrai

Posted 2011-12-06T15:19:09.540

Reputation: 18 051