Implementation Guide › Planning Your Environment › User and Access Planning › Password Policy Planning › Password Length and Format

Password Length and Format

Consider the following guidelines when determining whether to enforce length requirements:

• Because of the way passwords are encrypted, the most secure passwords are seven or 14 characters long.
• Take care not to exceed password length limitations imposed by any old operating systems on your network.

Consider the following guidelines when determining whether to enforce policies on maximum repeating characters or minimum number or numeric characters.

• Strong passwords are not found in any dictionary.
• Strong passwords include one or more characters from at least three of the four sets of lower case letters, upper case letters, digits, and special characters.