---
title: Password policy should require at least 14 characters
description: Datadog, the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring.
breadcrumbs: >-
  Docs > Datadog Security > OOTB Rules > Password policy should require at least
  14 characters
---

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.datadoghq.com/llms.txt).

# Password policy should require at least 14 characters
 
## Description{% #description %}

AWS IAM account password policies should require a minimum password length of 14 characters. A minimum length of 14 makes passwords more resistant to brute-force login attempts. This rule fails when no password policy is set, because the AWS default minimum length of 8 characters applies.

## Remediation{% #remediation %}

In the [IAM console](https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam), select **Account settings**, edit the password policy, set **Minimum password length** to 14 or greater, and save the policy. Alternatively, run `aws iam update-account-password-policy --minimum-password-length 14` (see [update-account-password-policy](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/iam/update-account-password-policy.html)), also passing the account's existing settings from [`aws iam get-account-password-policy`](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/iam/get-account-password-policy.html), because the command replaces the entire password policy.

## References{% #references %}

- [Set an account password policy for IAM users](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_passwords_account-policy.html)
- [AWS CLI update-account-password-policy](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/iam/update-account-password-policy.html)
- [AWS CLI get-account-password-policy](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/iam/get-account-password-policy.html)
- [CIS Amazon Web Services Benchmarks](https://www.cisecurity.org/benchmark/amazon_web_services)