Hi All,
There are several reasons the number seven had been popular in the past.
Seven might have been seen as an optimal number for passwords at one point
because seven is commonly held as the average number of characters people
are capable of easily remembering. The truth to this I would have to yield
to the scientists and our phone systems.
Rather than rewrite someone else's research on password length
recommendations, I'll just toss up a couple quick resources. The first is
from the archives of Security Focus. Please note that the article *is* old
and brief; do not stop your research at this article.
http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1319
http://web.textfiles.com/hacking/advisory.txt
The second link is to what I believe is some of the original L0phtcrack
information the Security Focus article references. Again, it should merely
begin to explain where the number seven is coming from.
You'll have to look around for more details about your specific system
setup and how to best secure it based on the authentication methods you are
using. While in general the longer the password, the better it will hold
up, password complexity and the encryption algorithm in use play key
factors.
Sincerely,
Donald
-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Carpenter [mailto:ccarpenter@dswa.net]
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 4:06 PM
To: Jason T. Hallahan; Crawley, Jim
Cc: security-basics@securityfocus.com
Subject: RE: Password Management
That's patently false. The longer the password, the better it will hold
up against brute force attacks. Length and complexity also provide a
measure of protection against those using rainbow tables.
Rainbow Tables (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_table
Password Recovery Speeds (Lockdown.co.uk)
http://www.thecrypt.co.uk/lockdown/recovery_speeds.html
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: Jason T. Hallahan [mailto:jthallah@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 10:54 AM
To: Crawley, Jim
Cc: security-basics@securityfocus.com
Subject: Re: Password Management
I read somewhere that the optimal password length for a Windows system
is actually 7 alphanumeric characters... can anyone verify or expand
on that?
On 4/20/06, Crawley, Jim <Jim.Crawley@yrbrands.com> wrote:
Post-it notes on the monitor.
Really though, it's all pretty straight forward. Minimum 6-8
characters, no maximum (try to encourage pass-phrases as they're
easier
to remember and harder to guess than simple words), complexity
(combination of alphanumeric characters), 60 day expiration, 5-20
password history. No exceptions. None, at all. Nill. Nada. Zip.
Most programs/systems there's not much you can do about the
storage of the passwords in the system itself, but if you're talking
about end-users then your biggest worry will be what I said in my
first
line. The best way to avoid this is probably to try to integrate as
many systems as you can to use the same accounts.
Right now we're working on getting all our in-house and
supplier-built systems working off our Active Directory accounts
pulling
the passwords via Kerberos from our domain controllers. This however
will also cause the issue of one system being compromised and they all
get compromised. It's a risk/benefit write-off thing - we think the
risk is worth it as the other option IS the dreaded post-it notes.
-----Original Message-----
From: Securi Net [mailto:securinet2004@yahoo.ca]
Sent: Friday, 21 April 2006 2:44 AM
To: security-basics@securityfocus.com
Subject: Password Management
Hello list members,
Does anyone know of any password management standards that are out
there?
I am looking at drafting an Enterprise wide strategy for managing
passwords, which should encompass change, exceptions to change,
password
storage security, secure practices, categorization of accounts, etc.
What I am trying to accomplish is to give a robust and resilient
structure to all the best practices out there around password
management.
I don't expect to find a silver bullet, but would welcome any
feedback.
Regards
CP
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