We recently had a case where a customer saw the following unfriendly message during an administrator password reset against a user. The administrator performed the same reset from another DC in his environment (the same password against the same... Read More
Password Policy Management
Categories
Building a password dictionary: Overview and best practices
As long as users continue using common/predictable passwords, dictionary attacks will continue to work. Hackers are not the only ones who can take advantage of password predictability. The best protection against a dictionary attack is using a dictionary during... Read More
How to create a fine-grained password policy in AD
For the first eight years of Active Directory, the only native way of having multiple password policies in your AD forest, was to have multiple domains. When Windows Server 2008 arrived on the scene, Microsoft introduced the concept of... Read More
How things work: Group Policy Caching
The release of Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2 introduced a new Group Policy concept called Group Policy Caching. Its purpose is to reduce the time it takes to perform certain scenarios for synchronous foreground Group Policy refresh. Here’s... Read More
How to remove insecure TLS protocols on your Password Reset System
A customer recently reported a problem with their Specops DMZ server after users were unable to reset their passwords via the password reset mobile app. The customer reinstalled the DMZ server, but still no success. Typically when we run... Read More
Remove Specops Authentication Client Start menu shortcuts
The Specops Authentication is a shared Client that provides functionality for Specops Password Policy, Specops uReset, and Specops Password Reset. For uReset & Password Reset, the Client provides Start menu shortcuts, a Reset Password link on the login screen,... Read More
How things work: Group Policy Processing
I have seen an error message appear during the first logon following a Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Below is information on how the problem manifests itself, the underlying technology (hardcore Group Policy knowledge) and how to work around it... Read More
“Untrusted Connection” error in Firefox & Intermediate Certificates
There are many reasons why you may see an SSL error, some of which will vary by browser. Even if the SSL certificate is installed correctly, you are not necessarily in the clear. One of our password reset customers... Read More
License import errors in Specops Password Policy
Following a Specops Password Policy installation (and in some cases an upgrade), you will need to import your license. The process is pretty seamless, but there are some errors you may encounter. In this blog post, we’ll walk through... Read More
Specops does biometrics with the Fingerprint Authenticator
With more and more manufacturers embedding biometric capabilities into their devices, biometric authentication is here to stay. According to the Biometrics Research Group, the number of people using biometrics on mobile devices totaled 650 million towards the end of... Read More