Maximum password age
Updated: May 2, 2012
Applies To: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Vista
This security policy reference topic for the IT professional describes the best practices, location, values, and security considerations for this policy setting.
Reference
The Maximum password age policy setting determines the period of time (in days) that a password can be used before the system requires the user to change it. You can set passwords to expire after a number of days between 1 and 999, or you can specify that passwords never expire by setting the number of days to 0. If Maximum password age is between 1 and 999 days, the minimum password age must be less than the maximum password age. If Maximum password age is set to 0, Minimum password age can be any value between 0 and 998 days.
Note
Setting Maximum password age to -1 is equivalent to 0, which means it never expires. Setting it to any other negative number is equivalent to setting it to Not Defined.
Possible values
User-specified number of days between 0 and 999
Not defined
Best practices
Set Maximum password age to a value between 30 and 90 days, depending on your environment. This way, an attacker has a limited amount of time in which to compromise a user's password and have access to your network resources.
Location
GPO_name**\Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Account Policies\Password Policy**
Default values
| Server type or Group Policy Object (GPO) | Default value |
|---|---|
Default domain policy |
42 days |
Default domain controller policy |
Not defined |
Stand-alone server default settings |
42 days |
Domain controller effective default settings |
42 days |
Member server effective default settings |
42 days |
Effective GPO default settings on client computers |
42 days |
Operating system version differences
This policy setting has not changed since Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP.
Policy management
This section describes features and tools that are available to help you manage this policy.
Restart requirement
None. Changes to this policy become effective without a computer restart when they are saved locally or distributed through Group Policy.
Security considerations
This section describes how an attacker might exploit a feature or its configuration, how to implement the countermeasure, and the possible negative consequences of countermeasure implementation.
Vulnerability
The longer a password exists, the higher the likelihood that it will be compromised by a brute force attack, by an attacker gaining general knowledge about the user, or by the user sharing the password. Configuring the Maximum password age policy setting to 0 so that users are never required to change their passwords is a major security risk because that allows a compromised password to be used by the malicious user for as long as the valid user is authorized access.
Countermeasure
Configure the Maximum password age policy setting to a value that is suitable for your organization's business requirements.
Potential impact
If the Maximum password age policy setting is too low, users are required to change their passwords very often. Such a configuration can reduce security in the organization because users might keep their passwords in an unsecured location or lose them. If the value for this policy setting is too high, the level of security within an organization is reduced because it allows potential attackers more time in which to discover user passwords or to use compromised accounts.