CA Strong Authentication Administration Guide › Getting Started › Configuring Administration Console Settings › Specifying Basic Authentication Settings › Configure the Basic Authentication Password Policy

Configure the Basic Authentication Password Policy

The Basic Authentication method enables you to log in to the Console by using a user ID.

You can use the Basic Authentication Policy page to strengthen the password policy by enforcing restrictions, such as password length, allowed number of special characters, and the number of failed login attempts allowed before locking the user’s access to the system.

Follow these steps:

1. Activate the Services and Server Configurations tab.
2. Click the Administration Console option on the submenu of the tab.
3. In the left pane, under the Authentication section click the Basic Authentication Policy link to display the corresponding page.
4. Specify the parameters that are listed in the following table in the Password Policy Configuration section. All the parameters on this page are mandatory.

   Minimum Password Length

   The least number of characters that the password must contain. You can set a value between 6 and 32 characters.

   Default Value: 6

   Maximum Password Length

   The most number of characters that the password can contain. You can set a value between 6 and 32 characters.

   Default Value: 25

   Maximum Failed Attempts

   The maximum consecutive number of times an administrator can specify the password incorrectly, after which the credential will be locked. You can set a value between 3 and 10.

   Default Value: 5

   Minimum Numeric Characters

   The least number of numeric characters (0 through 9) that the password must contain. You can set a value between 0 and 32 characters.

   Default Value: 1

   Maximum Password History Count

   The number of previous passwords that cannot be reused.

   Default Value: 3

   Validity Period

   The maximum number of days for which a password is valid. If you want the password not to expire, then choose the Never Expires option.

   Default Value: 180 days

   Allow Multi-Byte Characters

   Enable this option if you want to store the parameters in multi-byte character format. Note: If you select this option, then the next three fields will be disabled.

   Default Value: Disabled

   Minimum Alphabetic Characters

   The least number of alphabetic characters (a-z and A-Z) that the password must contain. You can set a value between 0 and 32 characters.

   Default Value: 4

   Minimum Special Characters

   The least number of Allowed Special Characters that the password must contain. You can set a value between 0 and 32 characters.

   Default Value: 1

   Allowed Special Characters (optional)

   The list of special characters that the password can contain.

   Default Value: !@#$%^&*()_+

5. Click Save to save the changes you made on this page.