UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

IT Services

University of Glasgow Password Policy

Overview
Passwords are an important aspect of computer systems security. They are typically the first line of protection for user accounts. A poorly chosen password may result in a serious breach in network and systems security resulting in
  • Loss or exposure of potentially sensitive data
  • System compromise
  • Compromise of other network systems

As such, all University of Glasgow employees (including contractors and vendors with access to University of Glasgow systems) are responsible for taking the appropriate steps, as outlined below, to select and secure their passwords.

Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to establish a standard for the creation of strong passwords, the protection of those passwords, and the frequency of change.

Scope
This policy applies to all personnel who have or are responsible for an account (or any form of access that supports or requires a password) on any system that resides at any University of Glasgow facility, have access to the University of Glasgow network, or stores any non-public University of Glasgow information.

Policy
General
Users must note that all system authentication credentials assigned to them are for their own personal use. Authentication credentials must not be shared or disclosed to any third party other than authorised system support personnel. It will be a breach of this policy for any user to misuse their or other users authentication credentials. If any such misuse results in a user knowingly elevating their system privileges above those that they have been authorised to use then this will be considered an act of gross misconduct.
  • All system-level passwords (e.g., root, enable, Windows admin, application administration accounts, etc.) Must be changed on at least a quarterly basis.
  • Remote access to privileged accounts (e.g., root, enable, Windows admin, application administration accounts, etc.) must not be attempted from insecure locations e.g., open access cluster systems or public terminals
  • All user-level passwords (e.g., e-mail, web, desktop computer, etc.) must be changed at least every six months with a recommended change interval of every four months.
  • A user account that has system-level privileges granted through group memberships or systems such as Dynamic Local User must have a password that is unique from all other accounts held by that user.
  • Passwords must not be inserted into email messages or other forms of electronic communication.
  • Where the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is used to access systems; the community strings must be defined as something other than the Standard defaults of "public," "private" and "system" and must be different from the passwords used to log in interactively to the systems. A keyed hash should be used where available (e.g., SNMPv2).
  • All user-level and system-level passwords must conform to the guidelines described below.
Guidelines

A. General Password Construction Guidelines
Passwords are used for various purposes at the University of Glasgow. Some of the more common uses include: user-level accounts, web accounts, email accounts, screen saver protection, voicemail password, and local router logins. Since very few systems have support for one-time tokens (i.e., dynamic passwords which are only used once), everyone should be aware of how to select strong passwords.

Strong passwords have the following characteristics:

  • Contain both upper and lower case characters (e.g., a-z, A-Z)
  • Have digits and punctuation characters as well as letters e.g.,
  • 0-9, !@#$%^&*()_+|~-=\ {}[]:";'<>?,./)
  • Are at least eight alphanumeric characters long.
  • Are not words in any language, slang, dialect, jargon, etc.
  • Are not based on personal information, names of family, etc.
  • Passwords should never be written down or stored on-line. Try to create passwords that can be easily remembered. One way to do this is create a password based on a song title, affirmation, or other phrase. For example, the phrase might be: "This May Be One Way To Remember" and the password could be: "TmB1w2R!" or "Tmb1W>r~" or some other variation.

NOTE: Do not use either of these examples as passwords!

By contrast poor, weak passwords have the following characteristics:

The password contains less than eight characters

The password is a word found in a dictionary (English or foreign)

The password is a common usage word such as:

  • Names of family members, pets, friends, co-workers, fantasy characters, etc.
  • Computer terms and names, commands, sites, companies, hardware, software.
  • The words "University of Glasgow", "glasuni", "glaacuk" or any derivation.
  • Birthdays and other personal information such as addresses and phone numbers.
  • Word or number patterns like aaabbb, qwerty, zyxwvuts, 123321, etc.
  • Any of the above spelled backwards.
  • Any of the above preceded or followed by a digit (e.g., secret1, 1secret)

B. Password Protection Standards
Do not use the same password for University of Glasgow accounts as for other non-University of Glasgow accounts (e.g., personal ISP account, option trading, benefits, etc.). Where possible, don't use the same password for various University of Glasgow access needs. For example, select one password for your desktop login account and a separate password for your remote access account.

Do not share your University of Glasgow passwords with anyone, including administrative assistants or secretaries. All passwords are to be treated as sensitive, Confidential University of Glasgow information.

Here is a further list of don'ts:

  • Don't reveal a password over the phone to ANYONE.
  • Don't reveal a password in an email message
  • Don't reveal a password to the boss
  • Don't talk about a password in front of others
  • Don't hint at the format of a password (e.g., "my family name")
  • Don't reveal a password on questionnaires or security forms
  • Don't share a password with family members
  • Don't reveal a password to co-workers while on holiday
  • Don't use the "Remember Password" feature of applications (e.g., Web browsers, Eudora, OutLook, etc).
  • Don't write passwords down and store them anywhere in your office.
  • Don't store passwords in a file on ANY computer system (including PDAs or similar devices) without encryption.

If someone demands a password, refer him or her to this document or the Computing Service Helpdesk for advice.

Change passwords at least once every six months (except system-level passwords which must be changed quarterly). NB. The recommended change interval for non system-level passwords is every four months.

If you suspect that one of your accounts or passwords has been compromised then you must report this to your local IT support staff, the central Helpdesk or the University of Glasgow Computer Incident Response Team (UG-Cirt) and change all your passwords.

C. Network Application Development Standards
Network application developers must ensure their programs contain the following security precautions.
  • Applications should support authentication of individual users, not groups.
  • Applications should not store passwords in clear text or in any easily reversible form.
  • Applications should provide for some sort of role management, such that one user can take over the functions of another without having to know the other's password.
  • Applications should support RADIUS and/or X.509 with LDAP security retrieval, wherever possible.
D. Use of Passwords and Pass phrases for Flexible Access Users

Flexible access (wi-fi, VPN, SSL, etc) to the University's campus network must be controlled using strong encryption, one-time password authentication or a public/private key system with a strong pass phrase.

E. Pass phrases
Pass phrases are generally used for public/private key authentication. A public/private key system defines a mathematical relationship between the public key that is known by all, and the private key, that is known only to the user. Without the pass phrase to "unlock" the private key, the user cannot gain access. Pass phrases are not the same as passwords. A pass phrase is a longer version of a password and is, therefore, more secure. A pass phrase is typically composed of multiple words. Because of this, a pass phrase is more secure against "dictionary attacks." A good pass phrase is relatively long and contains a combination of upper and lowercase letters and numeric and punctuation characters. An example of a good pass phrase:

"The*?#>*@TrafficOnThe101Was*&#!#ThisMorning"

All of the rules above that apply to passwords apply to pass phrases.

Enforcement
Any member of staff or student found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action.

Information Services or its delegates may perform password conformance checks on a periodic or random basis.

If a password associated with a user account is obtained during one of these scans then the user will be informed and required to change it.

Definitions
Application Administration Account  - Any account that is for the administration of an application e.g., Oracle database administrator, ISSU administrator.

Flexible access - various means by which users may connect their personal systems to the campus network, i.e.,

  • On campus flexible access locations providing wireless and wired Ethernet connectivity
  • Remote access service supporting Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity
  • Application specific services e.g., SSL, SSH, secure ftp, secure e-mail etc.

References

This policy is based on information gathered from a variety of sources including:

  • Local procedures and experience
  • Consultation with interested parties
  • Other Organisations and Institutions

The following Organisations and Institutions have provided reference material and deserve acknowledgement:

UKERNA Factsheets
 www.ja.net/documents/factsheets

SANS institute
 http://www.sans.org/resources/policies/Password_Policy.doc

Stanford University
 http://www.slac.stanford.edu/comp/security/password.html

Lawrence Berkley
 http://hpcf.nersc.gov/policy/password.php

PennState
 http://www.psu.edu/computing/policies/password.html

Cornell
 http://www.tc.cornell.edu/Services/policies/password.asp