Passwords

Password configuration and management is accomplished from two locations within the PMAC GUI. General password options related to access control are presented in the General Options administration page. Account specific password management is handled from the Users administration page.

General options, such as password expiration, password history rules, password length, and minimum password difference are covered in the PMAC User Interface chapter. See General Options administration elements to view these options.

The application provides two ways to set passwords: through the Users administration page, see Setting a password from the Users Administration page, and at login, see Setting a password from the System Login page.

Note:

Only an administrative user can manage passwords from the Users administration page. Password changes for non-administrative users are handled from the System Login page.

During the creation of a new user account, the administrative user has the option to force a password change the first time the new user logs into the account. This is normal practice for single user accounts but may not be practical for group accounts.

The criteria for a valid password:

• must contain from 8 to 16 characters (this is default behavior, minimum password length is a global option and may be changed).
• must contain at least three of the four types of characters: numerics, lower case letters, upper case letters, or special characters (! @ # $ % ^ & * ? ~).
• cannot be the same as the Username or contain the Username in any part of the password (for example, Username=jsmith and password=$@jsmithJS would be invalid).
• cannot be the inverse of the Username (for example, Username=jsmith and password=$@htimsj would be invalid).
• cannot contain three or more consecutively repeated characters, or three or more ascending or descending alpha-numeric characters in a row, for example, 1234, aaaa, dcba.
• cannot reuse any of the last three passwords (this is default behavior, maximum password history is a general option and may be changed.