--- title: Enable password policies on your instance description: Implement password policy controls at login. Force users to change their password if the password does not meet the password policy criteria. locale: en-US canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/platform-security/authentication/enable-password-policies.html release: australia product: Authentication classification: authentication topic_type: task last_updated: "2026-03-12" reading_time_minutes: 4 breadcrumb: [Password complexity requirements, Local authentication, Authentication, Access Management] --- # Enable password policies on your instance Implement password policy controls at login. Force users to change their password if the password does not meet the password policy criteria. ## Before you begin Role required: password\_policy\_admin ## About this task The Password Policy plugin \(com.glide.password\_policy\) is enabled by default. The policy goes into effect when a user changes or resets the password. The **Password Strength Preset** field is automatically set to **Default Strong**. If you want to add new criteria, you can perform the following procedure. If you customized your instance through the **ValidatePasswordStronger** installation exit or your Password Reset credential store **pwd\_cred\_store** property, then see [password policy properties](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/platform-security/authentication/password-policy-properties.md) to know how to implement a password policy for your instance. **Note:** The active password policy is highlighted for the Instance as shown. \[Omitted image "password-highlight.png"\] Alt text: Password Highlighted when set as active To change the password policy navigate to **All** > **Password Reset** > **Credentials Stores**, select the credentials and change the **Password policy** field to the required policy input. ## Procedure 1. Navigate to **All** > **Password Policy** > **Password Policies**. 2. Click **New**. The Password Policy form appears. 3. Specify the **Name** for your password policy. 4. In the Password Policy Criteria section, select one of the following presets from the **Password Strength Preset** field.
Password Strength Preset Description
**Default** Auto-populates the fields for required password characters as follows:- Sets **Minimum Uppercase Character\(s\)** to 1. - Sets **Minimum Lowercase Character\(s\)** to 1. - Sets **Minimum Numeric Character\(s\)** to 1. - Sets **Minimum Special Character\(s\)** to 0. The minimum password length is 8 characters, and the maximum is 100.
**Medium** Auto-populates the fields for required password characters as follows:- Sets **Minimum Uppercase Character\(s\)** to 1. - Sets **Minimum Lowercase Character\(s\)** to 1. - Sets **Minimum Numeric Character\(s\)** to 1. - Sets **Minimum Special Character\(s\)** to 1. The minimum password length is 12 characters, and the maximum is 40.
**High** Auto-populates the fields for required password characters as follows:- Sets **Minimum Uppercase Character\(s\)** to 1. - Sets **Minimum Lowercase Character\(s\)** to 2. - Sets **Minimum Numeric Character\(s\)** to 1. - Sets **Minimum Special Character\(s\)** to 3. The minimum password length is 8 characters, and the maximum is 100.
**Default Strong** Auto-populates the fields for required password characters as follows:- Sets **Minimum Uppercase Character\(s\)** to 1. - Sets **Minimum Lowercase Character\(s\)** to 1. - Sets **Minimum Numeric Character\(s\)** to 1. - Sets **Minimum Special Character\(s\)** to 1. The minimum password length is 8 characters, and the maximum is 100.
**Custom** Auto-populates the fields for required password characters as follows:- Sets **Minimum Uppercase Character\(s\)** to 1. - Sets **Minimum Lowercase Character\(s\)** to 1. - Sets **Minimum Numeric Character\(s\)** to 1. - Sets **Minimum Special Character\(s\)** to 1. The minimum password length is 8 characters, and the maximum is 100. You can also customize the **Password Policy Script** that is displayed.
**Advanced** Selecting **Advanced** displays **Password Rule Script** and **Password Strength Script**. Based on your requirement you can customize these scripts.
**Note:** Password policy is applied based on the selected preset. 5. On the form, fill in the remaining fields.
Field Description
Minimum Password Length Minimum length of the password. This option is displayed for all the presets except for **Advanced**. Set this field to a minimum of 8–10 characters.
Maximum Password Length Maximum length of the password. This option is displayed for all the presets except **Advanced**. Set this field to a maximum of 100 characters.
Minimum Uppercase Character\(s\) Minimum number of uppercase characters in the password, from 0 to 10.
Minimum Lowercase Character\(s\) Minimum lowercase characters in the password, from 0 to 10.
Minimum Numeric Character\(s\) Minimum numeric of characters in the password, from 0 to 10.
Minimum Special Character\(s\) Minimum number of special characters in the password, from 0 to 10.
Included Special Characters Allow a restricted set of special characters without any delimiter. For example, if you enter `$,!`, then users can only use "$" and "!" as special characters in the password. No other special characters can be used. A password with other special characters is not allowed.
Excluded Special Characters Allow a restricted set of special characters without any delimiter.For example, if you enter `@$!`, then users cannot use '@', '$' and '!' as special characters in their passwords. **Note:** This option is available if the **glide.password\_policy.use\_excluded\_special\_char** property is enabled.
Disallow User Data Option to disallow user data that is authentication-related.
Sequence Length Threshold The sequence length of your password.
Repetition Length Threshold The repetition length of your password.**Note:** - Both the sequence length threshold and repetition length threshold can have a maximum of eight characters. These fields enable you to restrict weak combinations of passwords that have predictable and repeating sequences such as "123456", "qwerty", "!@\#$%^", "aaaaa", and so on. - If **Password Strength Preset** is set to **Default Strong**, then the length for both sequence length threshold and repetition length threshold is set to four characters.
Test Your Password Specify your actual password in this field.
6. Click **Test Your Password**. 7. After the password is tested as valid, click **Submit** to submit the password. **Note:** Always test your password before submitting.