While reviewing the security controls in place for a web-based application, a security controls assessor notices that there are no password strength requirements in place. Because of this…

Minimum complexity requirements force passwords to include multiple character types (uppercase, lowercase, numbers, symbols), exponentially increasing the number of possible combinations an attacker must try in a brute force attack, dramatically raising the computational cost.

Maximum age limit controls how long a password can be used before it must be changed, which addresses credential exposure over time but does not increase resistance to brute force attacks against the current password.

Maximum length actually limits how long a password can be, which reduces the possible keyspace and could make brute force attacks easier rather than harder.

Minimum length requirements ensure passwords have enough characters to create a sufficiently large keyspace; even a small increase in required length multiplies the number of possible passwords exponentially, making exhaustive brute force attacks computationally impractical.

Minimum age limit prevents users from changing their password too frequently, which is a control against password re-use cycling but has no effect on the difficulty of brute force attacks.

Minimum re-use limit prevents users from reusing previous passwords, which addresses password history and credential reuse scenarios but does not increase the strength or complexity of the current password against brute force.