Policy Server Guides › Policy Server Configuration Guide › Password Policies › Password Services Overview

Password Services Overview

Password Services provide an additional layer of security to protected resources. Password Services uses a forms credential collector (FCC) and customizable HTML forms to manage user passwords in:

• A user directory
• Part of a user directory

  Note: For more information about the stores Password Services supports, see the 12.51 CA SiteMinder® Platform Support Matrix. For more information about agents and Password Services, see the Web Agent Configuration Guide.

You use password policies to manage user passwords and to, optionally, enable user–initiated password changes.

• Password policies define rules and restrictions that govern the following:
  • password expiration
  • composition
  • usage

  Note: You can apply multiple password policies to all or part of a user directory. CA SiteMinder® applies the policies according to the priorities you specify for each.

• CA SiteMinder® invokes a password policy when a user attempts to access a protected resource and evaluates the credentials of the user. If the policy determines that the password is expired, CA SiteMinder® can:
  • Disable the user account to prevent unauthorized access. If disabled, a CA SiteMinder® administrator must re–activate the account.
  • Force the user to change the password.

You can use password policies to enforce password composition rules without administrative intervention. Password Services lets you:

• Force users to change a password at time you specify.
• Enable user–initiated password changes.