Active Directory Cookbook

6.21. Requiring a User to Change Her Password at Next Logon

Problem

You want to require a user to change her password the next time she logs on to the domain.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

1. Open the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in.

2. In the left pane, right-click on the domain and select Find.

3. Select the appropriate domain beside In.

4. Beside Name, type the name of the user you want to modify and click Find Now.

5. In the Search Results, double-click on the user.

6. Click the Account tab.

7. Under Account options, check the box beside User must change password at next logon.

8. Click OK.

Using a command-line interface

> dsmod user "<UserDN>" -mustchpwd yes

Using VBScript

' This code sets the flag that requires a user to change their password
' ------ SCRIPT CONFIGURATION ------
strUserDN = "<UserDN>"  ' e.g. cn=rallen,ou=Sales,dc=rallencorp,dc=com
' ------ END CONFIGURATION ---------

set objUser = GetObject("LDAP://" & strUserDN)
objUser.Put "pwdLastSet", 0
objUser.SetInfo
WScript.Echo "User must change password at next logon: " & strUserDN

Discussion

When a user changes her password, a timestamp is written to the pwdLastSet attribute of the user object. When the user logs in to the domain, this timestamp is compared to the maximum password age that is defined by the Domain Security Policy to determine if the password has expired. To force a user to change her password at next logon, set the pwdLastSet attribute of the target user to and verify that the user’s account doesn’t have the ...