An account lockout policy is a built-in security policy that allows administrators to determine when and for how long a user account should be locked out. It determines what happens when a user enters a wrong password. It ensures that an attacker can’t use a brute force
attack or dictionary attack to guess and crack the user’s password. This can be configured from the local security policy of the computer or in the Group Policy Management Console by the network administrator. To edit and change the Account Lockout Policy settings, do the following: The three settings available under the Account Lockout Policy:Account Lockout DurationThis security setting determines the number of minutes a locked-out account remains locked out before it gets automatically unlocked. The value can be set between 0 minutes and 99,999 minutes. This setting needs the Account Lockout Threshold setting to be defined. If the value is set to 0, then the account will not be unlocked automatically. The administrator has to unlock the account explicitly. By default, this setting is disabled. To unlock the account:
Account Lockout ThresholdThis security setting determines the number of failed logon attempts that are allowed before a user account is locked out. For example, if an attacker enters a wrong password for the first time, the badPwdCount attribute of the user object is set to 1. When the attacker continues to enter wrong passwords, the badPwdCount is incremented by 1 until it reaches the account lockout threshold value at which time the account gets locked. A locked-out account cannot be used to log on until the account lockout duration expires or an administrator explicitly unlocks the account. The value can be set between 0 and 999. If the value is set to 0, then the account will never get locked out. The default value is 0. Reset Account Lock-out Counter AfterThis security setting determines the number of minutes that should elapse, after a failed logon attempt, for the failed logon counter to be set as 0. The value can be set between 1 and 99,999 minutes. This setting needs the Account Lockout Threshold setting to be defined. If the Account Lockout Threshold is defined, then the Reset Account Lock-out Counter After value must be less than or equal to the Lockout Threshold duration. How to edit AD account lockout policiesAccount lockout policy best practices Setting the account lockout policies must be done with the utmost care. Ideally, an optimum value for each policy should be defined in order to strike a good balance between security and convenience. Here are values that you could follow:
People also read Active Directory Password Policy Active Directory Account Policy Active Directory Policies Which of the following account lockout policy settings determines the number of failed login attempts before a lockout occurs group of answer choices?The Account lockout threshold policy setting determines the number of failed sign-in attempts that will cause a user account to be locked.
What is an account lockout policy?The account lockout policy “locks” the user's account after a defined number of failed password attempts. The account lockout prevents the user from logging onto the network for a period of time even if the correct password is entered.
What is a reasonable number of password guesses to attempt before causing an account lockout?Windows security baselines recommend configuring a threshold of 10 invalid sign-in attempts, which prevents accidental account lockouts and reduces the number of Help Desk calls, but doesn't prevent a DoS attack.
How do I find my account lockout policy?The Account Lockout Policy settings can be configured in the following location in the Group Policy Management Console: Computer Configuration\Policies\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Account Policies\Account Lockout Policy.
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