CIS.M365.1.3.1: Ensure the 'Password expiration policy' is set to 'Set passwords to never expire (recommended)'

CIS Benchmark notice

This check implements a recommendation of the CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark. The benchmark text is © Center for Internet Security, Inc. and is not reproduced here beyond the short summary below. Get the full benchmark free of charge from cisecurity.org.

ID	CIS.M365.1.3.1
Severity	Medium
Suite	CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark
Product	Microsoft 365
Related products	Entra ID
Feature	Organization settings
Security area	Authentication
Resource type	Domain
User impact of fixing	Low
Effort to fix	Low
Benchmark	CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark 7.0.0, 1.3.1 (L1, E3 Level 1)
Framework controls	cis-m365:1.3.1 nist-800-53-r5:IA-5(1) Authenticator Management | Password-based Authentication
Reads from	Microsoft Graph

What this checks and how to fix it

1.3.1 (L1) Ensure the ‘Password expiration policy’ is set to ‘Set passwords to never expire (recommended)’

Microsoft cloud-only accounts have a pre-defined password policy that cannot be changed. The only items that can change are the number of days until a password expires and whether or not passwords expire at all.

Rationale

Organizations such as NIST and Microsoft recommend against arbitrarily requiring users to change their passwords after a set period, unless there is evidence of compromise or the user has forgotten the password. This guidance applies even to single-factor (password-only) scenarios, as forced, periodic changes often lead to weaker passwords and reduced security. Additionally, this Benchmark advises implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all accounts, which further diminishes the value of password expiration policies. Long-lived passwords can be further strengthened by enabling additional password protection features in Entra ID.

Impact

When setting passwords not to expire it is important to have other controls in place to supplement this setting. See below for related recommendations and user guidance.

• Ban common passwords.
• Educate users to not reuse organization passwords anywhere else.
• Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication registration for all users.

Remediation action

To set Office 365 passwords are set to never expire:

1. Navigate to Microsoft 365 admin center.
2. Click to expand Settings select Org Settings.
3. Click on Security & privacy.
4. Check the Set passwords to never expire (recommended) box.
5. Click Save.

PowerShell

1. Connect to the Microsoft Graph service using Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "Domain.ReadWrite.All".
2. Run the following Microsoft Graph PowerShell command:

Update-MgDomain -DomainId <Domain> -PasswordValidityPeriodInDays 2147483647

Related links

• Microsoft 365 Admin Center
• NIST Special Publication 800-63B
• CIS Password Policy Guide
• Password policy recommendations for Microsoft 365 passwords
• CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark v7.0.0 - Page 47

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Mito check, based on CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark. Author: NZLostboy; contributors: merill, brianreidc7, blindzero. Open-source licences.