this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2024
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546
NIST proposes barring some of the most nonsensical password rules (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
179 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Here is the text of the NIST sp800-63b Digital Identity Guidelines.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 335 points 1 month ago (76 children)

Reworded rules for clarity:

  1. Min required length must be 8 chars (obligatory), but it should be 15 chars (recommended).
  2. Max length should allow at least 64 chars.
  3. You should accept all ASCII plus space.
  4. You should accept Unicode; if doing so, you must count each code as one char.
  5. Don't demand composition rules (e.g. "u're password requires a comma! lol lmao haha" tier idiocy)
  6. Don't bug users to change passwords periodically. Only do it if there's evidence of compromise.
  7. Don't store password hints that others can guess.
  8. Don't prompt the user to use knowledge-based authentication.
  9. Don't truncate passwords for verification.

I was expecting idiotic rules screaming "bureaucratic muppets don't know what they're legislating on", but instead what I'm seeing is surprisingly sane and sensible.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

It's crazy that they didn't include all the "should" items in that list. If you read the entire section, there's a critical element that's missing in the list, which is that new passwords should be checked against blocklists. Otherwise, if you combine 1, 5, and 6, you end up with people using "password" as their password, and keeping that forever. Really, really poor organization on their part. I'm already fighting this at work.

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