Maximum lifetime for user ticket renewal

Applies to

  • Windows 10

Describes the best practices, location, values, policy management, and security considerations for the Maximum lifetime for user ticket renewal security policy setting.

Reference

The Maximum lifetime for user ticket renewal policy setting determines the period of time (in days) during which a user’s ticket-granting ticket can be renewed.

The possible values for this Group Policy setting are:

  • A user-defined number of days from 0 through 99,999
  • Not defined

Best practices

  • If the value for this policy setting is too high, users may be able to renew old user ticket-granting tickets. If the value is 0, ticket-granting tickets never expire.

    It's advisable to set Maximum lifetime for user ticket renewal to 7 days.

Location

Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Account Policies\Kerberos Policy

Default values

The following table lists the actual and effective default policy values. Default values are also listed on the policy’s property page.

Server type or GPO Default value
Default Domain Policy 7 days
Default Domain Controller Policy Not defined
Stand-Alone Server Default Settings Not applicable
Domain Controller Effective Default Settings 7 days
Member Server Effective Default Settings Not applicable
Client Computer Effective Default Settings Not applicable

Policy management

This section describes features, tools, and guidance to help you manage this policy.

A restart of the device isn't required for this policy setting to be effective.

This policy setting is configured on the domain controller.

Group Policy

Client devices will get the new setting during the next scheduled and successful Group Policy refresh. But for domain controllers to assign these new settings immediately, a gpupdate.exe /force is required. On the local device, the Security Configuration Engine will refresh this setting in about five minutes.

Settings are applied in the following order through a Group Policy Object (GPO), which will overwrite settings on the local computer at the next Group Policy update:

  1. Local policy settings
  2. Site policy settings
  3. Domain policy settings
  4. OU policy settings

When a local setting is greyed out, it indicates that a GPO currently controls that setting.

Security considerations

This section describes how an attacker might exploit a feature or its configuration, how to implement the countermeasure, and the possible negative consequences of countermeasure implementation.

Vulnerability

If the value for the Maximum lifetime for user ticket renewal setting is too high, users might be able to renew old user tickets.

Countermeasure

Configure the Maximum lifetime for user ticket renewal setting to 7 days.

Potential impact

Seven (7) days is the default configuration. Changing the default configuration is a tradeoff between user convenience and security. A shorter time period requires users to authenticate with a DC more often, but remote users who authenticate with a DC infrequently can be locked out of services until they reauthenticate.