Orchestrator-workers on NIST SP 800-63B password rules, current revision

NIST SP 800-63B-4: password requirements for verifiers and CSPs

All three workers confirmed that the current revision is NIST SP 800-63B-4. They opened https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html, which is titled "NIST SP 800-63B-4, Digital Identity Guidelines: Authentication and Authenticator Management". The page is dated 26 Aug 2025 and says it "supersedes NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-63B". Every requirement below comes from section 3.1.1.2, "Password Verifiers", on that page.

Related points from the same section

• Shorter passwords: a password used only within multi-factor authentication MAY be shorter than 15 characters. It SHALL still be at least 8 characters.
• Forced changes: verifiers SHALL force a password change if there is evidence the authenticator has been compromised.
• Hashing: salting and hashing passwords with a suitable scheme is a SHALL. Using an approved scheme from SP 800-132 is only a SHOULD.

Gaps

• The workers did not open the 2017 Revision 3, so the two revisions were not compared.
• The CSRC page https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/63/b/4/final returned a 404. Every finding therefore rests on the single pages.nist.gov source.
• The workers found no disagreement among the sources they opened.

{"answers":[
{"topic":"single-factor-minimum-length","keyword":"SHALL","value":"15","quote":"Verifiers and CSPs SHALL require passwords that are used as a single-factor authentication mechanism to be a minimum of 15 characters in length.","url":"https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html"},
{"topic":"maximum-length","keyword":"SHOULD","value":"64","quote":"Verifiers and CSPs SHOULD permit a maximum password length of at least 64 characters.","url":"https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html"},
{"topic":"composition-rules","keyword":"SHALL NOT","value":null,"quote":"Verifiers and CSPs SHALL NOT impose other composition rules (e.g., requiring mixtures of different character types) for passwords.","url":"https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html"},
{"topic":"periodic-change","keyword":"SHALL NOT","value":null,"quote":"Verifiers and CSPs SHALL NOT require subscribers to change passwords periodically.","url":"https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html"},
{"topic":"password-hints","keyword":"SHALL NOT","value":null,"quote":"Verifiers and CSPs SHALL NOT permit the subscriber to store a hint (e.g., a reminder of how the password was created) that is accessible to an unauthenticated claimant.","url":"https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html"},
{"topic":"security-questions","keyword":"SHALL NOT","value":null,"quote":"Verifiers and CSPs SHALL NOT prompt subscribers to use knowledge-based authentication (KBA) (e.g., “What was the name of your first pet?”) or security questions when choosing passwords.","url":"https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html"},
{"topic":"blocklist","keyword":"SHALL","value":null,"quote":"When processing a request to establish or change a password, verifiers SHALL compare the prospective secret against a blocklist that contains known commonly used, expected, or compromised passwords.","url":"https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html"},
{"topic":"password-managers","keyword":"SHALL","value":null,"quote":"Verifiers SHALL allow the use of password managers and autofill functionality.","url":"https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html"},
{"topic":"salt-length","keyword":"SHALL","value":"32","quote":"The salt SHALL be at least 32 bits in length and chosen to minimize salt value collisions among stored hashes (i.e., to prevent multiple subscriber accounts from having the same hashed password).","url":"https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html"},
{"topic":"hashing-scheme","keyword":"SHOULD","value":null,"quote":"An approved password hashing scheme published in the latest revision of [SP800-132] or updated NIST guidelines on password hashing schemes SHOULD be used.","url":"https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html"}
]}