id: "IA-05(18)" title: "Password Managers" family: "IA" family_name: "Identification and Authentication" sort_id: "ia-05.18" priority: "P1" implementation_level: "system" parent: "IA-05" enhancement: True


Employ {{ insert: param, ia-05.18_odp.01 }} to generate and manage passwords; and

Protect the passwords using {{ insert: param, ia-05.18_odp.02 }}.

Guidance

For systems where static passwords are employed, it is often a challenge to ensure that the passwords are suitably complex and that the same passwords are not employed on multiple systems. A password manager is a solution to this problem as it automatically generates and stores strong and different passwords for various accounts. A potential risk of using password managers is that adversaries can target the collection of passwords generated by the password manager. Therefore, the collection of passwords requires protection including encrypting the passwords (see IA-5(1)(d) ) and storing the collection offline in a token.

Assessment Objective: {{ insert: param, ia-05.18_odp.01 }} are employed to generate and manage passwords;

Assessment Objective: the passwords are protected using {{ insert: param, ia-05.18_odp.02 }}.

Identification and authentication policy

procedures addressing identifier management

system security plan

system design documentation

mechanisms providing dynamic binding of identifiers and authenticators

system configuration settings and associated documentation

system audit records

other relevant documents or records

Organizational personnel with identification and authentication management responsibilities

organizational personnel with information security responsibilities

system/network administrators

Mechanisms supporting and/or implementing account management capability

mechanisms supporting and/or implementing identification and authentication management capabilities for the system