Password Policy Enforcer Keyboard Pattern Rule

Keyboard Pattern Rule

The Keyboard Pattern rule rejects passwords that contain keyboard patterns such as "qwerty". Passwords should not contain keyboard patterns because they are vulnerable to dictionary cracking and shoulder surfing (observing users as they enter their password).

The examples for this rule are taken from a US keyboard layout. These patterns may not exist on other keyboard layouts.

Select the Enabled check box to enable the Keyboard Pattern rule.

Choose the pattern detection mode from the keyboard patterns drop-down list. The Horizontal mode only detects horizontal patterns such as "qwerty" and "zxcvbn". The Vertical mode only detects vertical patterns such as "4esz" and "4rfc". The "Horizontal or vertical" mode detects patterns in both axes.

Select the Detect direction change check box if PPE should detect keyboard patterns that contain direction changes. For example, "qwewq" and "4rfr4" are both recognized as five-character keyboard patterns if direction change detection is enabled.

PPE detects direction changes in both axes if the pattern detection mode is set to "Horizontal or vertical". For example, "qawsed", "qwedsa", "qwedcv", and "qwsazx" are all recognized as six-character keyboard patterns if direction change detection is enabled and the pattern detection mode is set to "Horizontal or vertical".

Select the Detect key repeat check box if PPE should detect keyboard patterns that contain repeated keystrokes. For example, "qwwert" and "qwwwer" are both recognized as six-character keyboard patterns if key repeat detection is enabled.

Select the Detect key skip check box if PPE should detect keyboard patterns that contain a horizontally skipped key. For example, "qwryui" is recognized as a six-character keyboard pattern if key skip detection is enabled.

Choose a value from the Tolerance drop-down list to specify the longest keyboard pattern that PPE will tolerate before rejecting a password. For example, the password "myqwerpw" contains a four-character keyboard pattern. PPE will reject this password if the tolerance is set to three (or lower), and accept it if the tolerance is set to four (or higher).

Click the Keyboard Layouts button to select which keyboard layouts PPE uses for pattern detection. You must select at least one layout.

Click the Messages tab to customize the Password Policy Client rule inserts for this rule.

Modifier keys such as Shift and AltGr will not evade pattern detection.

Key positions can differ, even in keyboards with matching layouts. The Keyboard Pattern rule may not detect some patterns because of these differences. Please report any missed patterns to support@anixis.com.