AD Password and Lockout Policies

This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.

What this hour is for

The fine-grained generator drafts a policy and keeps the length at least 8. Reversible encryption stays off. The lockout planner drafts a threshold. Neither tool connects. This is a planning aid. It is not legal advice and not an official standard.

Do not shorten a length or clear a history. Do not try passwords against accounts. The domain is one you administer. Do not link the policy during the reading.

192.0.2.10/24 and example.com are documentation. They stay in the note.

The change you can finish

Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.

Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.

Name the domain and the group.
Draft a length of at least 8.
Leave reversible encryption off.
Do not link the policy.
Do not try passwords.
Stop.

Mistakes that outlive the command

AD Password and Lockout Policies goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.

The length shortened.
Reversible encryption turned on.
Passwords tried.
The policy linked during the reading.
The page called legal advice.

Decisions to write down

One decision for AD Password and Lockout Policies: The length is at least 8. Reversible encryption stays off. Nothing was linked. No password was tried. And this is not legal advice.

Checks before you call it done

Confirm this before you call the change done: The domain is written. The length is written. Reversible encryption is off. Nothing was linked. And no password was tried. If one of those fails, stop.

# Length at least 8.
# Reversible encryption stays off.
# Do not try passwords.
# Not legal advice.
# Do not link during the reading.

Before you leave the host

AD Password and Lockout Policies ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.

The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.

192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.

prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.

One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.

If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.

A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.

This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.

Tools for this guide

These tools run in the browser on this site. They do not log into your machines.

Group Policy Guide

More in this cluster

The pillar for this page, and the next published pages filed with it.

Companion: Security: Password Policy Best Practices.