Reset account lockout counter after

A brief look at configuring Reset account lockout counter after policy

The Reset account lockout counter after policy setting describes the number of minutes that must elapse after a user fails to log on before the failed logon attempt counter is reset to 0. If Account lockout threshold value is configured greater than zero, this reset time must be less than or equal to the value of Account lockout duration.

The possible values that can be adopted for this setting can lie between a range of 1 to 99,999. This configuration can be left undefined.

Recommended Practices:

You need to evaluate the level of threat your organization faces and balance it against the cost of your time and effort in resetting the password. This decisions is organizations dependent. However, the Microsoft recommend setting the Reset account lockout counter after policy setting to 15.

Security Implications and combative measures:

There are some security issues to consider about this policy setting's configuration. If the value is set to a long interval a malicious entity could make repeated attempts to log into a user's account and lock out their accounts, resulting in a denial-of-service (DoS) attack. This leads to administrators having to reset accounts for compromised users in an organization. If you configure this policy setting to a reasonable value you can block high speed brute force attacks and provide enough number of chances for users who mistype their passwords. Ensure you notify users of the number of login attempts that they're allowed and for how long they should wait for the lockout timer to expire before they inform the IT administrator.

About ADAudit Plus

ADAudit Plus is a real time change auditing software that helps keep your Active Directory, Azure AD, Windows file servers, NetApp filers, EMC file systems, Synology file systems, Windows member servers, and workstations secure and compliant. With ADAudit Plus, you can get visibility into:

• Authorized and unauthorized AD management changes
• User logons, logoffs, and account lockouts
• GPO changes
• Group attribute and membership changes
• OU changes
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• Azure AD logons, and changes to roles, groups, and applications
• PowerShell scripts and modules

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