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85.4 (L1) Ensure 'Password Length' is set to 'Configured: 15 or more'

Information

This policy setting configures the Windows LAPS Password Settings policy for password length.

Each additional character in a password increases its complexity exponentially. For instance, a seven-character, all lower-case alphabetic password would have 26 to the power of 7 (approximately 8 x 10 to the power of 9 or 8 billion) possible combinations. At 1,000,000 attempts per second (a capability of many password-cracking utilities), it would only take 133 minutes to crack. A seven-character alphabetic password with case sensitivity has 52 to the power of 7 combinations. A seven-character case-sensitive alphanumeric password without punctuation has 627 combinations. An eight-character password has 26 to the power of 8 (or 2 x 10 to the power of 11) possible combinations. Although this might seem to be a large number, at 1,000,000 attempts per second it would take only 59 hours to try all possible passwords. Remember, these times will significantly increase for passwords that use ALT characters and other special keyboard characters such as '!' or '@'. Proper use of the password settings can help make it difficult to mount a brute force attack.

The recommended state for this setting is: Configured: 15 or more

Note: Organizations that utilize third-party commercial software to manage unique & complex local Administrator passwords on domain members may opt to disregard these LAPS recommendations.

Note #2: Windows LAPS does not support standalone computers - they must be joined to an Active Directory domain or Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory).

Due to the difficulty in managing local Administrator passwords, many organizations choose to use the same password on all workstations and/or Member Servers when deploying them. This creates a serious attack surface security risk because if an attacker manages to compromise one system and learn the password to its local Administrator account, then they can leverage that account to instantly gain access to all other computers that also use that password for their local Administrator account.

Solution

To establish the recommended configuration from Microsoft Intune Admin Center:

 - Navigate to Endpoint security > Account protection
 - Create or edit a LAPS policy type Local admin password solution (Windows LAPS)
 - Set Password Length to Configured: 15 (or more)

Impact:

Windows LAPS-generated passwords will be required to have a length of 15 characters (or more, if selected).

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/16853

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-5(1), CSCv7|4.4

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: 02bf568abc10b71c1f66aa174b9ff06c1230e1f8e07de9c6bf7e5172c8fca59b