Minimum password age
Applies to
- Windows 11
- Windows 10
Describes the best practices, location, values, policy management, and security considerations for the Minimum password age security policy setting.
Reference
The Minimum password age policy setting determines the period of time (in days) that a password must be used before the user can change it. You can set a value between 1 and 998 days, or you can allow password changes immediately by setting the number of days to 0. The minimum password age must be less than the Maximum password age, unless the maximum password age is set to 0, indicating that passwords will never expire. If the maximum password age is set to 0, the minimum password age can be set to any value between 0 and 998.
Possible values
- User-specified number of days between 0 and 998
- Not defined
Best practices
Windows security baselines recommend setting Minimum password age to one day.
Setting the number of days to 0 allows immediate password changes. This setting isn't recommended. Combining immediate password changes with password history allows someone to change a password repeatedly until the password history requirement is met and re-establish the original password again. For example, suppose a password is "Ra1ny day!" and the history requirement is 24. If the minimum password age is 0, the password can be changed 24 times in a row until finally changed back to "Ra1ny day!". The minimum password age of 1 day prevents that.
If you set a password for a user and you want that user to change the administrator-defined password, you must select the User must change password at next logon check box. Otherwise, the user won't be able to change the password until the number of days specified by Minimum password age.
Location
Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Account Policies\Password Policy
Default values
The following table lists the actual and effective default policy values. Default values are also listed on the policy’s property page.
| Server type or Group Policy Object (GPO) | Default value |
|---|---|
| Default domain policy | 1 day |
| Default domain controller policy | Not defined |
| Stand-alone server default settings | 0 days |
| Domain controller effective default settings | 1 day |
| Member server effective default settings | 1 day |
| Effective GPO default settings on client computers | 1 day |
Policy management
This section describes features, tools, and guidance to help you manage this policy.
Restart requirement
None. Changes to this policy become effective without a computer restart when they're saved locally or distributed through Group Policy.
Security considerations
This section describes how an attacker might exploit a feature or its configuration, how to implement the countermeasure, and the possible negative consequences of countermeasure implementation.
Vulnerability
Users may have favorite passwords that they like to use because they're easy to remember and they believe that their password choice is secure from compromise. Unfortunately, passwords can be compromised and if an attacker is targeting a specific individual user account, with knowledge of data about that user, reuse of old passwords can cause a security breach.
To address password reuse, you must use a combination of security settings. Using this policy setting with the Enforce password history policy setting prevents the easy reuse of old passwords. For example, if you configure the Enforce password history policy setting to ensure that users can't reuse any of their last 12 passwords, but you don't configure the Minimum password age policy setting to a number that is greater than 0, users could change their password 13 times in a few minutes and reuse their original password. Configure this policy setting to a number that is greater than 0 for the Enforce password history policy setting to be effective.
Countermeasure
Configure the Minimum password age policy setting to a value of 1 day. Users should know about this limitation and contact the Help Desk to change a password sooner. If you configure the number of days to 0, immediate password changes would be allowed, which we don't recommend.
Potential impact
If you set a password for a user but want that user to change the password when the user first logs on, the administrator must select the User must change password at next logon check box, or the user can't change the password until the next day.