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Configuring Special Requirements for Plain-Text Passwords

The JUNOS software has special requirements when you create plain-text passwords on a routing platform. Table 9 shows the default requirements.

Table 9: Special Requirements for Plain-Text Passwords

JUNOS Software	JUNOS-FIPS
The password must be between 6 and 128 characters long.	FIPS passwords must be between 10 and 20 characters in length
You can include most character classes in a password (uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and other special characters). Control characters are not recommended.	You can include most character classes in a password (uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and other special characters). Control characters are not recommended.
Valid passwords must contain at least one change of case or character class.	Passwords must use at least three of the five defined character classes (uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and other special characters).

JUNOS software supports the following five character classes for plain-text passwords:

Lowercase letters
Uppercase letters
Numbers
Punctuation
Special characters: ! @ # $ % ^ & * , +< > : ;

Control characters are not recommended.

To change the requirements for plain-text passwords, include the password statement at the [edit system login] hierarchy level:



[edit system login]

password {

change-type (set-transitions | character-set);

format (md5 | sha1 | des);

maximum-length length;

minimum-changes number;

minimum-length length;
}

These statements apply to plain-text passwords only, not encrypted passwords.

The change-type statement specifies whether the password is checked for the following:

The total number of character sets used (character-set)
The total number of character set changes (set-transitions)

For example, the following password:



MyPassWd@2

has four character sets (uppercase letters, lowercase letters, special characters, and numbers) and seven character set changes (M–y, y–P, P–a, s–W, W–d, d–@, and @–2).

The change-type statement is optional. If change-type is omitted, JUNOS-FIPS plain-text passwords are checked for character sets and JUNOS plain-text passwords are checked for character set changes.

The minimum-changes statement specifies how many character sets or character set changes are required for the password. This statement is optional. If minimum-changes is not specified, character sets are not checked for JUNOS software. If the change-type statement is configured for character-set, then minimum-changes must be 5 or less because JUNOS software only supports 5 character sets.

The format statement specifies the hash algorithm (md5, sha1 or des) for authenticating plain-text passwords. This statement is optional. For JUNOS software, the default format is md5. For JUNOS-FIPS, only sha1 is supported.

The maximum-length statement specifies the maximum number of characters allowed in a password. This statement is optional. By default JUNOS passwords have no maximum; however, only the first 128 characters are significant. JUNOS-FIPS passwords must be 20 characters or less. The range for JUNOS software maximum-length passwords is from 20 to 128 characters.

The minimum-length statement specifies the minimum number of characters required for a password. This statement is optional. By default JUNOS passwords must be at least 6 characters long, and JUNOS-FIPS passwords must be at least 10 characters long. The range is from 6 to 20 characters.

Changes to password requirements do not take effect until the configuration is committed. When requirements change, only newly created, plain-text passwords are checked; existing passwords are not checked against the new requirements.

The default configuration for JUNOS plain-text passwords is:



[edit system login]
passwords {
change-type character-sets;
format md5;
minimum-changes 1;
minimum-length 6;
}

The default configuration for JUNOS-FIPS plain-text passwords is:



[edit system login]
passwords {
change-type set-transitions;
format sha1;
maximum-length 20;
minimum-changes 3;
minimum-length 10;
}

Example: Configuring Special Requirements for Plain-Text Passwords

In this example, the minimum password length is set to 12 characters and the maximum length is set to 22 characters.



[edit system login]
passwords {
minimum-length 12;
maximum-length 22;
}

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