Nortel Networks OPTera Metro 3500 - Manual (Page 174)

2-136 Operation, administration, and maintenance (OAM) features
OPTera Metro 3500 Multiservice Platform NTRN10AN Rel 12.1 Standard Iss 1 Apr 2004
• spaces (deleted as entered), lowercase (switched to uppercase as entered)
• question mark (?)
Note 1: Carriage returns (the key) are always ignored in the TL1
interface.
Note 2: To maintain case sensitivity when the password includes
lowercase characters, you must enclose the password in double quotes (“).
The double quotes are not included in the length of the password. When
you enclose the password in double quotes, you cannot include a backslash
(\), space, or double quote as part of the password.
Enhanced password restrictions
Enhanced password restrictions force you to choose more secure passwords
using a password checking algorithm that satisfies the following requirements:
• a user can choose as their password, an existing password that is already
associated with another user ID thereby never divulging an existing
password
• passwords must be at least eight characters in length and contain a
combination of alphanumeric characters including at least one alphabetic
and at least one numeric or special character as listed above
• passwords cannot contain the associated user-ID
• the network element provides a mechanism that prevents a user from
selecting a password that is part of the specified set of excluded passwords,
such as locally used acronyms and surnames.
• to maintain case sensitivity when the password includes lowercase
characters, you must enclose the password in double quotes (“)
Password Reuse
To ensure that users do not reuse passwords, the following requirements are
enforced:
• there is a minimum waiting period (provisionable from 0 to 999 days)
before an existing password can be updated
• the reuse of the most recently used five passwords is not allowed
Password Aging
Password aging forces users to change their passwords periodically. The
longer a password remains in use, the greater the chance an intruder can
discover that password. When you change your password frequently you
reduce the chance of an intruder break-in.
The password aging interval can be set on a per user-ID basis. The User
Privilege Code (UPC) 4 and 5 accounts cannot be disabled because of
password aging which ensures that there is always a way to login to the
network element. Users will be prompted for password changes accordingly.